EXCLUSIVE: Ari Fleischer Secretly Helped Guide Komen Strategy On Planned Parenthood

[SeattleGirl]

Ari Fleischer, former press secretary for George W. Bush and prominent right-wing pundit, secretly helped guide Komen Foundation’s disastrous strategy regarding Planned Parenthood. Fleischer personally interviewed candidates for the position of “Senior Vice President for Communications and External Relations” at Komen last December. According to a source with first-hand knowledge, Fleischer drilled prospective candidates during their interviews on how they would handle the controversy about Komen’s relationship with Planned Parenthood.

Fleischer’s relationship with Komen and the Planned Parenthood controversy was previously undisclosed. Fleischer confirmed to ThinkProgress his recent role in filling key communications positions at Komen. He stressed, however, that another communications firm (Ogilvy PR) was retained by Komen to deal with the explosive controversy over the last few days.

<snip>

According to a source, during at least one interview, Planned Parenthood was a major topic of conversation. Fleischer indicated that he had discussed the Planned Parenthood issue with Komen’s CEO, Nancy Brinker, and that she was at her wits end about how to proceed. Fleischer described himself as a longtime friend of Brinker.

<snip>

Fleischer’s high-level involvement with Komen further complicates its image as an apolitical cancer charity. Fleischer is a prominent partisan commentator and a longtime critic of Planned Parenthood. In his book, Taking Heat, Fleischer criticized Planned Parenthood as a partisan, ideological organization that receives undeserved positive coverage in the press. In 2001, Fleischer said that the Clinton administration verged too far to the left on family planning efforts because “if Planned Parenthood wanted it, the previous administration favored it.”

Link: http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/0...0024ba972a

Women-haters giving advice to -- and running -- services for women.

I am even more thoroughly disgusted than I was before.

[Velleity]

"Conservatives" are thoroughly disgusting.

[NJMaverick]

they are not the non-political charity they portrayed themselves to be.

[SeattleGirl]

(02-03-2012 05:04 PM)NJMaverick Wrote:  they are not the non-political charity they portrayed themselves to be.

Yes, I have sadly come to find that out over the past couple of days.

[pappy]

Never did think Ari was all that bright. If he had any part in this is just confirms my opinion.

[jaxx]

There is nothing clean about anything the repubs do, no matter what it is. When they take cancer and turn it into a political football, we know we are dealing with sleaze.

[Born_A_Truman]

The more that comes to light, the uglier it gets. Waiting for the connection to the House investigation (as in intentionally started as the excuse).

[Hekate]

That little slime weasel. This just gets uglier and uglier. When I heard yesterday that Komen also severed their relationship with Johns Hopkins (stem cell research) I knew that the fight was far from over. This just confirms it all over again.

Too bad. I hope no one lets the public forget how the organization was turned on its head by RW fanatics who would rather let women die than dispose of a fertilized egg for any reason at all.

[janedrake]

No wonder it was a complete and utter disaster.

[azmouse]

Don't these men have mothers, sisters, wives, daughters?
Don't they want the best care for them? From their actions, I'd have to say no.

[Hekate]

Men like themselves have money and social power -- the rules (and even laws, when it comes to abortion) that apply to the rest of us do not apply to them or to their women. Never did. Never will.

If push comes to shove, a rich girl or woman "in trouble" can always take a "vacation" to Europe and return home carefree.

(02-04-2012 09:53 AM)azmouse Wrote:  Don't these men have mothers, sisters, wives, daughters?
Don't they want the best care for them? From their actions, I'd have to say no.