THE PECULIAR INGENUITY OF THE NEW REPUBLIC :

Defense Secretary : The peculiar duplicity of Ari Fleischer (Jonathan Chait, 05.30.02, New Republic)

[W]hat Fleischer does, for the most part, is not really spin. It's a system of disinformation--blunter, more aggressive, and, in its own way, more impressive than spin. Much of the time Fleischer does not engage with the logic of a question at all. He simply denies its premises--or refuses to answer it on the grounds that it conflicts with a Byzantine set of rules governing what questions he deems appropriate. Fleischer has broken new ground in the dark art of flackdom: Rather than respond tendentiously to questions, he negates them altogether.

Interesting how folks like Mr. Chait practically worshipped Clinton flak Mike McCurry for doing the exact same stuff, suggesting that it's less the quality of Ari Fleischer's obfuscations than the quality of he for whom Fleischer obscures that's the problem here. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 2, 2002 6:00 AM