Just who did coin the phrase? The New York Post likes it so much they commonly use it on their front page. There is even an AxisofWeasels.com that was registered to a 'Jacque Chirac' (sic) on January 31st. Most bloggers, however give Scott Ott credit for coining the phrase on January 22nd, with this delightful bit of satire.

Still, there is some protest as to the Scrappleface connection. A few days after Scott Ott used the phrase, an anti-war blogger (and anti-phrase stealing blogger) got upset because he thought he'd coined the phrase. He even jokingly asked for a lawyer to sue Ott, because he stole it fair and square back on January 18th from an anti-war protest sign. He even admits to seeing it on LGF back in November of 2002.

I was unable to find the LGF comment, but I did find a usage back on February 20, 2002 at Citiblog. Assuming that the author hasn't back-dated the post, (I don't know why anyone would), that is the first usage I can find.

So, I guess it comes down to how you define 'coined the phrase'. Miriam-Webster define it to mean 'create' or 'invent'. By that definition, who knows who really first came up with the phrase.

Still, I give Scott Ott credit for creating it in it's current meaning. After all, Ray Garraud, the author of Citiblog meant for it to be an alternate usage for the 'Axis of Evil'. The jokingly bitter Max Sawicky of Nowarblog meant for it to refer to the Bush Administration. Scott Ott was arguably the first person to apply it to France and Germany, and thus 'created' it's current definition.