When Democrats expressed outrage that he would blame the second intifada on Clinton's attempts to broker a peace deal, Fleischer said, "Of course, I stand by it." Hours after that, he issued a statement retracting his remarks. "I mistakenly suggested that increasing violence in the Middle East was attributable to the peace efforts that were under way in 2000," he said. "That is not the position of the administration ... The only people to blame for violence are the terrorists who engage in it." But even while that statement was issued, senior White House officials whispered to reporters that not only had Bush agreed with Fleischer, but that the first remark was also accurate. A few weeks later, Bush told British television, "It wasn't all that long ago where a summit was called and nothing happened, and as a result we had significant intifada in the area."

There was the side to Fleischer that liked to bully. It was most famously displayed when comedian Bill Maher, then host of ABC's "Politically Incorrect," unfavorably compared the courage of U.S. foreign policy makers with the 9/11 terrorists -- "We have been the cowards," he said, "lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away" -- Fleischer noted that all Americans "need to watch what they say, watch what they do."

After William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard, predicted in the Washington Post that Vice President Al Gore would win the election, Fleischer called him to tell him his prediction had been "noted."

In May 2001, Bennett Roth of the Houston Chronicle -- pointing out that the president had encouraged parents to speak to their children about drug abuse -- asked Fleischer, "How much has he talked to his own daughters about both drugs and drinking? And given the fact that his own daughter was cited for underage drinking, isn't that a sign that there's only so much effect that a parent can have on their children's behavior?" Fleischer asked Roth to respect the president's privacy and later called him, reporting that his question had been "noted in the building."

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post went through perhaps the most public feud with Fleischer. Milbank, whose stories have garnered him the 2002 Aldo Beckman Award for White House coverage, was criticized by Fleischer in the May 2001 Washingtonian. At the last two presidential press conferences, neither Milbank nor his colleague Mike Allen -- who shares the beat with Milbank for the hometown, politics-heavy newspaper -- were called on.

Presumably today stands as one of Milbank's better days on his beat. This is a sentiment assuredly not shared by Fleischer's fan clubs, which popped up on the Web here and here. (Better buy your Ari Fan Club gear quickly!)

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