Ari "the Egg with Eyebrows" Fleischer must have thought he was pulling off a really clever trick on 4/15 when, at the White House press conference, he allowed "journalist" Les Kinsolving to ramble on for fully 3 three minutes - about three times longer than any White House press corps reporter is ever allowed. Kinsolving, an ultra-conservative religious zealot and rightwing radio talk show host from Maryland, is allowed a consistent slot at the press conferences while scores of other serious reporters from meaningful publications and stations are excluded. Although Ari the Egg usually brushes Les off, yesterday, he allowed him to have the next-to-last "question" (positioned to leave the comments in the public's mind without being too obviously the last word). Why? Because Bush and henchmen are trying to whip up support for an invasion of Syria or, more likely, support for an OK to Israel to lob missiles at Syria. But the White House wants to do it in a way that makes it SEEM as if the call for action is coming from the "media" and thus "the citizenry."

But, as a Marylander, I am well aware, though the rest of the country and world may not be, that Kinsolving is the state's foremost (most publicly outspoken,m anyway) Christian Zionist - a rightwing talkshow host along the lines of Limbaugh but with much more of a religious slant. I don't think one of his programs goes by, from all accounts, without glowing references to Israel and slams of all things Muslim. Listen to the text of his "question" and then try to tell me this was not planted by Fleischer:

"In addition to Hamas and Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah, Syria is now harboring escaped Iraqi leaders and they have chemical weapons - WMDs [talk about a false and/or unproven statement presented as fact! - the White House and media minion's favorite propaganda tactic]. With the president having assured us we are at war with terrorists and with those countries that harbor terrorist my question...with so many of our troops along Syria's border, why is Syria less deserving of a regime change than Iraq..a regime change would also liberate Lebanon [and if you believe this wasn't prescripted, then you probably believe that G. W. Bush is a genius!]...Does the president believe that his roadmap to Palestinian peace can possible succeed as long as Arafat and his hand-picked Prime Minister are on the scene where so many thousands of Palestinians cheered in the street last week in support of Saddam Hussein, just as they did earlier when they heard about 9/11 [this is entirely unsubstantiatable and intentionally slanted to whip up outrage]. "

This is a press corps QUESTION????? What this amounts to, and it is very disturbing, is allowing the White House press conference to be turned into a rightwing radio talk show, one designed to foment a mob response - just as Savage, Limbaugh, et al.'s forums are geared at whipping up mobs, whome they then laud as "patriots" while anyone lacking a mob mindset is condemned - in fact threatened with bodily harm - as "unpatriotic."

Meanwhile, Ari played "good cop" in his prescripted response. He calmly and self-righteously reassured the audience that Bush's only goal is to see Israel and Palestine living in peace side by side....blah blah blah.

I think it is extremely important to point out (by way of forewarned is forearmed) that the White House and its pals, be they creeps like Kinsolving or creeps like Tony Blair, are using the "good cop/bad cop" scam repeatedly these days (probably a Karl Rove brainstorm). They seem to be doing it more often now, undoubtedly because it is working. They are succeeding in pulling the wool over the eyes of both the public and the politicians. The press conference interchange between Kinsolving and Fleischer is just the latest example. Kinsolving plays the "bad cop", laying out the heavy handed (and, of course, actual) plan for the Middle East. Meanwhile, Fleischer plays "good cop," making it seem as if an invasion and regime change of Syria is the furthest thing from the White House's thoughts.

The good cop/bad cop play has been used repeatedly by Blair and Bush. Bush plays the heavy, while Blair "leaks" papers or phone communications that make him look like the "good cop," who is really trying to keep things in check. Yet, as soon as the public - or Parliament - swallow this bill of goods, Blair gets exactly what he really wants - full support of the G. W. Bush play book. The most recent "good cop" Blair scam was the "leaking" of the "Middle East Peace road map." We are supposed to believe from this that all Bush and Blair ever wanted, as Ari the Egg repeated (to make sure the public took the bait), was for Israel and the Palestinians to live side by side in Peace, facilitated and promoted by the good and kind Blair and Bush. But this scam will only last until the last detail of the Syrian invasion plans are in place. Then suddenly, we will be told, just as we were told before the Iraq invasion, that sorry! it's too late - We've tried our darnedest to work out a peaceful solutions, but now we're gonna go trash the place!

Back to Kinsolving - Kinsolving was an Episcopal minister for some years supposedly before becoming a hardened Born-again type. He was first planted in the White House Press corps by the Nixon administration during the golden age of presidential dirty tricks, and has been used by the rightwingers ever since in this capacity. During the Reagan years, he was always available to ask a loaded prescripted question - like this one (proudly posted, believe it or not, in his bio!):

QUESTION: Mr. President, will your crime commission investigate Bob Woodward's televised announcement that at the Washington Post there are 40 hardened users of cocaine... or are you inclined to sluff off here- because this explains a lot of WHAT GOES INTO the Washington Post?

PRESIDENT REAGAN: You're tempting me- almost beyond my strength?

This interchange (see http://www.leskinsolving.com/bio.html) was obviously designed to discredit, past and present, anything the then-hardhitting Washington Post had to say about Reagan, and also to cast public doubt on the whole Watergate scandal story, broken by Woodward: They were just a buncha crack heads anyway, right?

During the Clinton years, Kinsolving was one of the most relentless Clinton bashers, using his forum to promote smears and inuendos.

Signficantly, in his bio, he brags about having been a featured guest on the Drudge Report, FOX, CNN, Limbaugh, and Hannity and Colmes (the rightwing/not-so-rightwing duo posing as conservative/liberal). He also brags about having been twice nominated for a Pulitzer. Do you know how many thousands of reporters are nominated each year? I suspect that these rightwing rag editors and radio station managers (the folks who must submit a nomination) probably nominate every even vaguely plausible candidate in their stables just to lend credence to their bios. You'll notice on Kinsolving's bio that he leaves out his abundant representation in Christian Zionist and Zionist publications, where he is widely cited. (Go to google.com and put in Les Kinsolving Zionist and see what comes up!).

In summary, Kinsolving is a shining example of just how much collusion there now is between the American media and rightwing politicians. It would not surprise me to find, a year or two down the line, should we be unfortunate enough to still have Bush in the White House, that the White House Press Corps consists solely of Limbaugh, Savage, Kinsolving, The Rev. Moon, Bill O'Reilly, a few people from FOX, Bill Kristol (of Rupert Murdoch -owned Weekly Standard), and George Will.