AP's Ron Fournier To Karl Rove: "Keep Up The Fight"

> Buried in a 50-page report titled "Misleading
> Information From The Battlefield" on Pat Tillman and
> Jessica Lynch is this nugget:
> >
> "Karl Rove exchanged e-mails about Pat Tillman
> with Associated Press reporter Ron Fournier, under the
> subject line "H-E-R-O." In response to Mr.
> Fournier's e-mail, Mr. Rove asked, "How does our
> country continue to produce men and women like this,"
> to which Mr. Fournier replied, "The Lord creates men
> and women like this all over the world. But only the great
> and free countries allow them to flourish. Keep up the
> fight."
> >
> > Fournier is now the AP's Washington Bureau Chief.
> >
> > ***UPDATE 8:24pm ET, July 14, 2008***
> >
> > In a story that crossed on the AP wires, Fournier is
> quoted as saying he was simply interacting with a source in
> the course of his duties as a political reporter, and
> regrets the "breezy nature of the
> correspondence."

Wow -- Ron Fournier is beginning to dominate the news cycle. First the Politico story about his May takeover of the DC bureau, which is fascinating. And now this. Where to begin in addressing this matter?

Well, for starters, he began a sentence with "The Lord creates ..." Maybe that sounds odd to me because I live in Massachusetts and I'm agnostic. Or maybe I'm out of the loop and didn't hear about Ralph Reed becoming the AP Atlanta bureau chief ... could be part of a larger pattern, right?

What does he mean by "Keep up the fight" in an e-mail to Karl Rove? The fight to cut taxes for the top 1% of wage earners? The fight to smear Democrats? That sentence makes almost zero sense. It's like Anderson Cooper's "Keeping them honest" refrain ... it's something a pull string toy would say.

Is a person like this qualified to run a DC bureau?

Glad to see Ron didn't offer any advice on what the President should do to capitalize on the Tillman death (with a powerful photo op). Leave that task to Peggy Noonan:

"Commentators and reporters contacted the White House to offer advice. For example, Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan e-mailed the White House’s Director of Strategic Initiatives, Peter Wehner, recommending that he “find out what faith Tillman practiced and have the president go by that church and light a candle or say a prayer.”

You can read the whole "Misleading Information From The Battlefield" report here.

UPDATE:
Someone who works for AP in DC -- yes, identity protected -- had the following to say to me about Mr. Fournier:
"I wouldn't say Ron is friends with Rove based on this e-mail. He's just freakish enough to write cheesy/smarmy stuff like this in reply to everyone. If I asked him what he had for lunch today, he'd probably be like, "Bread harvested from the golden grains sown in America's heartland."

In other words, the guy is a total cornball. Keep up the fight, Ron. And keep 'em honest!