Ari Fleischer on Morning Joe: Republicans Shouldn't Call the President Weak, But Obama is Weak as Fuck

I know, I'm supposed to be taking it easy and fielding offers, but like a vampire who gets seeds thrown at his feet, I can't help but spring into action when someone says some incredibly dumb shit on TV right in front of me. This is probably not the dumbest thing anyone's said about the crisis in Ukraine (that headline is a slight paraphrase), but there is a valuable lesson in this one.

On Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough was saying how people were mean to George W. Bush about Putin, and they shouldn't have been, and now, they should also shut the fuck up and let President Obama go to work. Actually, Scarborough connected Sen. Harry Reid's "loser" and "liar"comments to a President George W. Bush visit to Putin, but the "loser" comment was in reference to Iraq and the economy, while the "liar" comment was in reference to a local Nevada issue, the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump.

Whatever, the point stands, when there's a foreign policy crisis, people ought to take pains not to undermine the president, a point with which former Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer couldn't agree more. "I didn't appreciate when people treated President Bush like that," Fleischer said. "The person to blame here is Vladimir Putin. He's the one responsible, he's the one who did it."

 He then added "I think there is a case to be made that the President has, through weakness, changed the cost/benefit that Vladimir Putin would go through to decide whether to use force, that's a legitimate issue but it has to be discussed in the proper vein."

 Now, before you go telling Fleischer that you've got his "proper vein" right here, keep in mind, saying dumb shit is what Republicans do, it's like getting angry at the sun for shining, or the New England Patriots for cheating. Think Scarborough saying he wouldn't bring up Monica Lewinsky in "a gazillion years," but also, too, isn't it the solemn duty of the media to bring it up long, deep, and constantly?

No, the real lesson here is in how David Axelrod responded, by sarcastically complimenting Fleischer for his "panache," to which Fleischer essentially replied "Panache? Who the fuck says panache, you pussy?"

That's also a slight paraphrase, of course, but this is the problem with many liberals: they're so convinced of their self-evident cleverness that they don't bother to win any arguments. When a Republican shits on the rug, you need to rub their nose in it, not toss off a good-natured quip. Something like, "Well, gee, Ari, your guy must've been pussy of the year when Putin invaded Georgia, amiright?"

Yeah, it's an obvious point, but it sticks, and the next time one of these guys thinks about saying something stupid like that, they'll remember how it felt to have their own spew forcibly clogging their nostrils.