Ari Fleischer: Failing upwards.

What was most amusing about President Obama’s fiery speech labeling Paul Ryan’s budget as “radical” was the aftermath. Conservative pundits like Ari Fleischer had to sit in front of cameras with straight faces and pretend that the President had breached some sense of decorum, that the GOP was this above-the-fray body that has flawless deportment. But the lies aren’t very convincing. The Republican Party, perhaps more extremist than at any point in its history, has had members question the President’s birthplace, yell at him during the State of Union Address and label him a “socialist” and one who is complicit with our enemies.

Fleischer, who was part of one of the two or three most incompetent Administrations in U.S. history, continually contributes to the air of disrespect, though he’s too savvy to do it in such an obvious way. Listen to him whenever he refers to our 45th President and notice that he always refers to him as “Barack Obama” and never as “President Obama.” Never. It’s a Gingrich-ish method of disqualifying and demeaning his subject, smugly disallowing his status. If Fleischer is so concerned about good manners, he should can his feigned outrage, and improve his own.•