Ari Fleischer, Gone But Not Forgotten
As I wrote on this site a month ago in “George W. Bush, Skunk at the Party” Republican candidates this year have shunned W.’s memory and never mention his administration. I was struck by this again tonight in reading Judd Legum’s report in ThinkProgess that Ari Fleischer, W.’s longtime press secretary, advised the Komen Foundation in December 2011 on hiring a Senior V-P for Communications and External Relations–a reader points out it seems they may have anticipated dealing with bad press from a controversy such as de-funding Planned Parenthood. Even while many right-wingers feign amnesia, a salutary result of the Komen scandal would be if it serves to remind voters that though W. and his minions are gone from the West Wing we must remember the baleful influence of the Bush presidency lest the country fall under its malign spell again.
Update: A day after reporting Fleischer’s role in advising Komen, ThinkProgress’s Judd Legum is now reporting that Fleischer’s role with Komen is ongoing–he’s still advising them. Komen is paying the ex-Bushie to help them try to recover from the public relations disaster of this past week. Our donations to Komen at work. #WontBeFooledAgain.
The ThinkProgress story by Josh Legum that you linked to doesn’t say Ari Fleischer was involved in hiring Karen Handel (“Senior Vice President for Public Policy” from April 2011 until she quit the other day). It says Ari Fleischer was interviewing candidates in December 2011 for the position “Senior Vice President for Communications and External Relations” — because Komen knew that they would have a lot of ‘splaining (“Communications and External Relations”) to do once the news came out about their defunding of PP — something brought about over the previous 12 months by Karen Handel. (Karen Handel was brought on as a consultant to Komen in Jan 2011, and then as Sr VP for Public Policy in April 2011).
Now, I loathe Ari Fleischer — I’m not trying to say anything nice about him! — just trying to clarify that Josh Legum’s report does not say Ari Fleischer interviewed candidates for Handel’s job! Frankly, I doubt there were any other candidates interviewed for Handel’s job! Her predecessor, Jennifer Luray, was let go in the fall of 2010, with a large severance package, right after Karen Handel lost her bid to become the Republican candidate for Gov of Georgia. (Coincidence? I think not!) Then Handel quitely became an “advisor” in Jan 2011, and publicly “Sr VP for Public Policy” in April 2011.
Now, given that Ari Fleischer is a buddy of Nancy Brinker’s, he may have had Brinker’s ear with all kinds of recommendations, forever. (Or — maybe bringing Fleischer on board was Handel’s idea — who knows?) But what Josh Legum’s report says is that Fleischer interviewed candidates for a different position in Dec 2011.
Ann,
Thanks for your close reading of Legum’s piece, and of mine. I’ve corrected my post.
Best wishes, Philip Turner
corrected version:
The ThinkProgress story by Judd Legum that you linked to doesn’t say Ari Fleischer was involved in hiring Karen Handel (“Senior Vice President for Public Policy” from April 2011 until she quit the other day). It says Ari Fleischer was interviewing candidates in December 2011 for the position “Senior Vice President for Communications and External Relations” — because Komen knew that they would have a lot of ‘splaining (“Communications and External Relations”) to do once the news came out about their defunding of PP — something brought about over the previous 12 months by Karen Handel. (Karen Handel was brought on as a consultant to Komen in Jan 2011, and then, as noted, became Sr VP for Public Policy in April 2011).
Now, I loathe Ari Fleischer — I’m not trying to say anything nice about him! — just trying to clarify that Josh Legum’s report does not say Ari Fleischer interviewed candidates for Handel’s job! Frankly, I doubt there were any other candidates interviewed for Handel’s job! Her predecessor, Jennifer Luray, was let go in the fall of 2010, with a large severance package, right after Karen Handel lost her bid to become the Republican candidate for Gov of Georgia. (Coincidence? I think not!) Then Handel quietly became an “advisor” in Jan 2011, and publicly “Sr VP for Public Policy” in April 2011.
Now, given that Ari Fleischer is a buddy of Nancy Brinker’s, he may have had Brinker’s ear with all kinds of recommendations, forever. (Or — maybe bringing Fleischer on board was Handel’s idea — who knows?) But what Judd Legum’s report says is that Fleischer interviewed candidates for a different position in Dec 2011.
thanks for your kind response, Philip!