Top Ten Tony Snow Exchanges With Helen Thomas
September 14, 2007 at 4:04 pm
Today is Tony Snow’s last day as White House press secretary.
There’s no way you can remember Snow’s service to this country without revisiting his edgy exchanges with Helen Thomas.
Here then are the Top Ten Tony Snow/Helen Thomas moments from his White House press briefings:
10.
MR. SNOW: I’ll call on you next, Helen. Go ahead.
Q Does the White House and the President share that same gut feeling?
MR. SNOW: I don’t want to try to get into gastrointestinal descriptions.
9.
Q Why did we send a B-52 carrying nuclear weapons from South Dakota to Louisiana, jeopardizing America?
MR. SNOW: My goodness, I don’t have an answer for that.
8.
MR. SNOW: Helen, and then to Mark.
Q The President emphasized September and he emphasized General Petraeus’ report — all week you moved away from September. Is it a real important date for us to decide things?
MR. SNOW: I think what the President is saying is –
Q Does he know that we have civilian rule in this country?
MR. SNOW: Yes. Do you?
Q I do.
7.
Q We are a conqueror. We should be asking the people, do they really want us there.
MR. SNOW: Helen.
Q Yes, sir.
MR. SNOW: Do you believe — well, no, you will scold me for asking a question, so I will not. I will phrase my question in the form of an answer.
Q You know, best defense is offense, is that your whole approach?
MR. SNOW: No, my –
Q I’m asking you a very –
MR. SNOW: No, my approach is to — well, you’re asking a simple question that actually has some fairly complex precedents in the terms of the advisability or possibility of a national –
Q You keep saying that they want us there –
MR. SNOW: Helen, Helen, Helen.
Q Put it to a test.
MR. SNOW: Helen, no war is popular. No war is popular.
Q That’s not the answer.
MR. SNOW: If you had done — no, it is — no, that is an absolutely accurate answer.
Q Nobody wants –
MR. SNOW: If you had asked in 1864 — I’ll go back to the Civil War — the referendum would have failed and Abraham Lincoln would have failed.
Q How do you know that?
MR. SNOW: Go back and read, just a little history will tell you.
6.
Q Has the President factored in any of how many people will die?
MR. SNOW: Helen, you ask that question every day, and I don’t know how I can –
Q It’s a very valid question.
MR. SNOW: And it’s a question he thinks about every day.
Q And does he care about it? Does it matter how many die?
MR. SNOW: Yes, it does. Absolutely.
Q Well, you have a benchmark now — this fall has been so lethal.
MR. SNOW: And the people who have been killing will kill even more if we walk away. I would turn you to The New York Times op-ed page today, where a Marine Major talks about –
Q Written by a Marine.
MR. SNOW: I’m sorry, does that make it suspect that he’s on the ground trying to save lives?
Q No, that doesn’t. But, I mean, he has to take the military attitude.
MR. SNOW: Well, you might want to read it, because the military — the military attitude is, warriors don’t like to be engaged in war if you can have peace, and generals don’t like to send people into battle unless they have to. The people who are instigating the violence in Iraq are ones who are determined to kill.
5.
Q We’re the invader. Do you realize that?
MR. SNOW: Helen, we’ve engaged in this conversation a few times. The Iraqi people have made it clear that they think that America’s involvement in unseating Saddam Hussein was historic and liberating. The real tragedy is that there are people who are willing to kill by the thousands to prevent Iraq from becoming free. And I would –Q How can they feel free when they’re under occupation?
MR. SNOW: I would warn against — I would warn against drawing moral equivalents between people who take IEDs and blow up civilians and Americans who are laying their lives on the line so that there can be a democracy in Iraq. As for our occupation, the United States would like to be able to leave as quickly as possible. The Iraqis would, too. But the Iraqis say, don’t leave until the job is done. We agree. It is important to win in Iraq as defined by a free democracy that sustains, governs, and defends itself.
4.
Q What’s the U.S. role in all this?
MR. SNOW: Well, the U.S. role is one of working with Israel and, when possible, with the Palestinians to try to generate a peace — the same it’s always been, Helen –
Q Then why is it bankrupting the Palestinians?
MR. SNOW: The Palestinians are not being bankrupted, Helen. What’s happening, as you know, is that there is — Hamas is a terrorist organization. We do not give money to terrorist organizations. What has happened is that this government has tried in a number of ways to make humanitarian aid available to the Palestinian people. We draw a distinction between Hamas, which is –
Q And they were democratically elected.
MR. SNOW: They were democratically elected and they’re still a terrorist organization.
Q By your designation.
MR. SNOW: Yes. Thank you very much, Helen. They are, in fact, by the designation of this government, this administration, and prior administrations. So let me continue my answer.
Q Go ahead.
MR. SNOW: Thank you.
Q You’re welcome.
MR. SNOW: By the way, that’s a nice apple.
3.
Q Well, how many people are dying every day?
MR. SNOW: It depends on what the — does it not depend on — well, let me put it this way, Helen, when people are dying because of car bombs it illustrates the difficulty of the situation and the nature of the people we are fighting.
2.
Q Do you not understand the difference between private companies and governments, sir?
MR. SNOW: I understand. I do understand. But what I’m saying here is, what the public — I’ll tell you what, you ask the American public, do you want — do you think you have a right to know the specific means and methods by which –
Q That’s not –
MR. SNOW: Helen, will you stop heckling and let me conduct a press conference.
Q — argument.
MR. SNOW: Well, no, I’m making an argument, and you’re pestering the teacher.
1.
Q The United States is not that helpless. It could have stopped the bombardment of Lebanon. We have that much control with the Israelis.
MR. SNOW: I don’t think so, Helen.Helen Thomas from NPR
Q We have gone for collective punishment against all of Lebanon and Palestine.
MR. SNOW: What’s interesting, Helen –
Q And this is what’s happening, and that’s the perception of the United States.
MR. SNOW: Well, thank you for the Hezbollah view.
Longhorn Six said,
September 14, 2007 @ 4:44 pm
Let’s just hope for a severe winter in the DC area. Maybe this superannuated joke will slip and break her neck.
4micah said,
September 14, 2007 @ 4:57 pm
If the above is a representative sample of Ms. Thomas’s positions, she shows a shocking lack of intellectual independence. She seems to be nothing more than the embodiment of the left’s prejudices and reflexes.
Neal5x5 said,
September 14, 2007 @ 6:00 pm
I once wrote to Helen Thomas after a particularly unpleasant case of her demonstrating that she’s an activist and not a reporter. I suggested that she was partly responsible for degrading her profession and that while I’d considered a career in journalism, I’m glad that I went on to an honorable job. She replied that I’d made a good choice. Go figure.
wrensis said,
September 14, 2007 @ 6:22 pm
Helen Thomas (born August 4, 1920) is a noted news service reporter, a Hearst Newspapers columnist, and member of the White House Press Corps. She served for fifty-seven years as a correspondent and White House bureau chief for United Press International (UPI). Thomas has covered every president since John F. Kennedy, was the first woman officer of the National Press Club, was the first woman member and president of the White House Correspondents Association, and the first woman member of the Gridiron Club. She has written four books, including her latest, Watchdogs of Democracy?: The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public.
I suggest the above comments show a current lack of knowledge and would suggest they try studying a little more history.
I would not wish anyone the fate suggested by longhorn…including longhorn. Wow and these people vote.
go figger
Sunflower Desert said,
September 14, 2007 @ 6:52 pm
Thanks for posting this. It made me smile and reassured me that my love for Tony is real.
chase said,
September 14, 2007 @ 7:09 pm
I love helen.
Wade Nelson said,
September 14, 2007 @ 7:11 pm
A tour in Iraq would cure Longhorn of his naievete, and disrespect for perhaps the most honorable White House reporter in history.
NancyGee said,
September 14, 2007 @ 7:20 pm
She’s shilling for Hizbollah and the dreadful Palestinians, and you find that honorable?
I think it’s despicable and can’t understand why she’s still allowed in those press conferences. Surely out of all the other lying journalists in the United States there is one who would be willing to replace her.
George Bush said,
September 14, 2007 @ 7:29 pm
9/11 9/11 Iraq 9/11 Al Qaeda. Iraq, 9/11 Evildoers Al Qaeda Terrorists.
Iraq?
9/11. Al Qaeda.
Please pass the pretzels.
James Foxx said,
September 14, 2007 @ 7:59 pm
I know Nancy, those poor poor Jews.. I mean, Israelis. They can’t survive without milking the US of money.
How about this, fuck the Israelis, and fuck the white house. We have other issues to take care of beside a bunch of fucking Jews.
billhedrick said,
September 14, 2007 @ 9:38 pm
Mr. Foxx, you are aware that repeated use of the word “fuck” does little to indicate your intelligence don’t you?
sandy said,
September 14, 2007 @ 9:52 pm
Helen Thomas is an old liberal useless hag.
Speranza said,
September 14, 2007 @ 10:54 pm
James Foxx go back to reading Der Sturmer.
Helen Thomas is the nutty old aunt who lives in your attic.
j.l.stone said,
September 14, 2007 @ 11:53 pm
I’ll take the old hag Helen over that poofter pretend journalist Jeff Gannon any day.
E said,
September 15, 2007 @ 12:09 am
billhedrick said,
September 14, 2007 @ 9:38 pm
Mr. Foxx, you are aware that repeated use of the word “fuck” does little to indicate your intelligence don’t you?
***************
Don’t you mean to say “it does a lot to indicate your little intelligence”?.
Kevin Downey said,
September 15, 2007 @ 12:26 am
Helen Thomas is a walking, talking, living, breathing argument for term limits for journalists. As wrensis reminds us, she is 87 years old, and based on her conduct at these press briefings, she has completely lost sight of the fact that her job is to ask questions in order to obtain information, not to make speeches or provoke arguments. It’s actually sad…I can’t imagine that she was always this way, and she deserves credit for being a pioneer for female political journalists. And now she’s just a joke.
Matt said,
September 15, 2007 @ 1:25 am
Helen Thomas represents the alliance between the radical left and the Arab dictatorships, but it should come as no surprise - since she is …Lebanese. There are far more intelligent reporters in DC, so how did this “old Arab” (as wacko Ann Coulter called her) ever become such a figure??
what a waste of Tony’s time…
Mark Kienan said,
September 15, 2007 @ 1:27 am
Tony Snow was the perfect press secretary for this administration in that he was a ridiculous bold faced liar with no integrity.
What is particularly sad to me is that despite the fact that he is dying from colon cancer which is now metastatic to his liver he persisted in his ludicrous lies. Wasting the precious time he has left alive.
One would hope that a person on death’s door would feel the necessity for truth in their life. They would feel the necessity to spend their time in a meaningful way.
He just persisted in telling lies.
I guess this is his character.
Oh..by the way Bravo Helen Thomas.. a true patrior and great human being.
Andy Boynton said,
September 15, 2007 @ 1:37 am
Go Helen!
froghog50 said,
September 15, 2007 @ 2:17 am
Helen is right and tony’s just another sub for rush limbaugh, which i did not ever hear on the news when he came to work for bush. So much for truth in the media. Tony Snow lied every time he got up there. He was nothing but a smart ass when asked serious questions such as why it’s right to steal palastein land and give it to Isreal. How about giving back the states to the indians and mexicans who owned it prior to our stealing it by violence from them? No Tony was nothing but an extreme right winger who made it on talk radio where you don’t have to answer to real reporter like Helen. She’s the best.
Joe said,
September 15, 2007 @ 2:26 am
Asking the tough quetions is the highest calling of a journalist.
Spinning the truth, avoiding the truth, and repeating the big lies, are indicators of the propaganda minister.
How many days until this awful presidency is relinquished to the dismal footnote it deserves?
It actually hurts to have to watch the press secretary consciously trying to parse his explanations to fit into the twisted thinking of the neo-cons.
robindude said,
September 15, 2007 @ 2:46 am
Helen Thomas has the courage to ask the questions that should be asked. Sadly, the right is holding on for dear life and cannot see through the quagmire they’ve created to admit they have lied to the American people.
Shame on them and anyone who voted for this nefarious lot of corrupt warmongers.
Bushlover said,
September 15, 2007 @ 2:47 am
I am sure that all Republicans long for the days when Rove’s gay lover was in the press room to balance out the questions from Helen Thomas.
Shinger said,
September 15, 2007 @ 3:10 am
Helen Thomas has transitioned from reporter to activist. She’s put in her time and earned that right. She’s made it quite clear where she stands. My problem isn’t so much with Helen Thomas as it is with Bush. If I were President and she hit me with those kind of questions, I would toss her from the WH Press Corps. So what if people don’t like it. If Bush had removed her from the WH Press Corps when she started being this way, it would be a story for a week or two and then it would be over. Now, Tony Snow and whoever follows him will have to put up with a mini Air America Radio program everytime Helen Thomas opens her mouth.
RussBBinVegas@aol.com said,
September 15, 2007 @ 4:24 am
Gotta love these folks complaining about Helen Thomas, when it’s Tony Snow’s true colors that come through loud & clear. He was brought in from Fox News the only television news channel Dick Cheney watches precisely because they already knew he was a total partisan for BushWar. He’s telegenic and not as dumb & robotic as Scott McLellan before him. Notice that Biush’s first press spokesman Ari Fleischer has gone on to head so-called Freedom Watch, which creates rah-rah pro-BushWar commercials that far-rightwingers like Las Vegas casino owner Sheldon Adelson and big-time Bush family crony Howard Leach pay to air nationwide. Does anyone seriously think the White House PR machinery is interested in disseminating the truth of how the BushCheney Administration works behind closed doors.. God love Helen Thomas for provoking little glimpses of the absurdities & contradictions of Tony Snow’s daily talking points.
paul miller said,
September 15, 2007 @ 4:27 am
maybe Tony snow will yet have his Lee Atwater conversion, Ed Henry is the new Helen, real questions that call for accountability, Helen led the way!
milton rhodes said,
September 15, 2007 @ 5:56 am
She is a counterwieght for all the spineless robots who make up the rest of the Whitehouse press corps. We have a junior Adolf Hitler in the Whitehouse and these nuts on the right don’t want his increasingly bizarre and evil policies to be challenged.
Hey people tihs is a democracy. That’s what’s supposed to happen in democracies.
Amanda Hooke said,
September 15, 2007 @ 6:00 am
Helen is smarter and sharper than anyone in that White House. The ignorance of some people who make disparaging remarks about her are incredibly ignorant, so ignorant they haven’t a clue at how pathetic they sound. The world is waching and just shocked at what is happening in America.
Talcott said,
September 15, 2007 @ 7:04 am
Everyone laughs at Love
but what they really want
is to be proven wrong.
Blenko said,
September 15, 2007 @ 7:51 am
Helen Thomas ask questions while other reporters swallow the Bush administration’s spin whole. God forbid that they look unpatriotic by investigating the obvious issues that need to be brought out to the open. Ms. Thomas is fearless and Americans are fortunate to have her covering the White House.
Tony Snow held similar views as Helen Thomas before he drank the kool-aid and started working for Pesident Gozilla.
Here are but a few of his statements prior to working at the White House:
Here’s some of what he’s had to say about the President:
– Bush has “lost control of the federal budget and cannot resist the temptation to stop raiding the public fisc.” [3/17/06]
– “George W. Bush and his colleagues have become not merely the custodians of the largest government in the history of humankind, but also exponents of its vigorous expansion.” [3/17/06]
– “President Bush distilled the essence of his presidency in this year’s State of the Union Address: brilliant foreign policy and listless domestic policy.” [2/3/06]
– “George Bush has become something of an embarrassment.” [11/11/05]
– Bush “has a habit of singing from the Political Correctness hymnal.” [10/7/05]
– “No president has looked this impotent this long when it comes to defending presidential powers and prerogatives.” [9/30/05]
– Bush “has given the impression that [he] is more eager to please than lead, and that political opponents can get their way if they simply dig in their heels and behave like petulant trust-fund brats, demanding money and favor — now!” [9/30/05]
– “When it comes to federal spending, George W. Bush is the boy who can’t say no. In each of his three years at the helm, the president has warned Congress to restrain its spending appetites, but so far nobody has pushed away from the table mainly because the president doesn’t seem to mean what he says.” [The Detroit News, 12/28/03]
– “The president doesn’t seem to give a rip about spending restraint.” [The Detroit News, 12/28/03]
– “Bush, for all his personal appeal, ultimately bolstered his detractors’ claims that he didn’t have the drive and work ethic to succeed.” [11/16/00]
– “Little in the character of demeanor of Al Gore or George Bush makes us say to ourselves: Now, this man is truly special! Little in our present peace and prosperity impels us to say: Give us a great man!” [8/25/00]
– “George W. Bush, meanwhile, talks of a pillowy America, full of niceness and goodwill. Bush has inherited his mother’s attractive feistiness, but he also got his father’s syntax. At one point last week, he stunned a friendly audience by barking out absurd and inappropriate words, like a soul tortured with Tourette’s.” [8/25/00]
– “He recently tried to dazzle reporters by discussing the vagaries of Congressional Budget Office economic forecasts, but his recitation of numbers proved so bewildering that not even his aides could produce a comprehensible translation. The English Language has become a minefield for the man, whose malaprops make him the political heir not of Ronald Reagan, but Norm Crosby.” [8/25/00]
Jack Conrad said,
September 15, 2007 @ 8:21 am
That Helen Thomas selfishly took up time that could’ve better been used by penetrating questions from Jeff Gannon and gave song and dance man Tony the Snowjob a headache. I won’t miss his bushite waffling everyday, but I do miss a press that asks some real questions and then asks follow ups when they get some contrived, tortured babble from the spin machine. Good riddance Tony, send some of your family to Iraq…then I’ll start believing we’re living in the same world. jc
james binc said,
September 15, 2007 @ 9:56 am
1. This administration is the most corrupt administration that this country has suffered through.
2. If they continue to succeed in diluting honest intellectual debate through Bush apologists such as Tony Snow, we may never fully understand the horrible impact they have had on this country.
3. The blood of the hundreds of thousands of people are on their hands, and Helen Thomas is to be praised for never forgetting that.
Dons Blog said,
September 15, 2007 @ 9:57 am
Interesting that taking anything other than the conservative Israeli viewpoint is now considered extremely biased. I’m not sure if Helen is that left wing or our center has been allowed to radically shift.
There is a wing of Hamas that is armed and terrorist, there is a wing that does a number of humanitarian projects. Not unlike Sinn Fein which is still part of the Irish government. Somehow Hamas is different.
I especially like the comment about civilian leadership of the military. Bush installed General Petraeus and told him what policy to follow then hid behind the generals coattails to avoid responsibility. I’m sure Tony Snow would prefer that point not being pointed out.
mamased said,
September 15, 2007 @ 9:59 am
People, people, people. The press is SUPPOSED to ask tough questions.
How is it possible that we’ve come to the point in our country that people want reporters drummmed out of the WH Press corp for asking difficult, thorny questions about difficult, thorny issues? The history of the Fourth Estate is full of people that spoke truth to power and subsequently got the nation’s attention in time to fend off disaster.
It’s dangerous to ignore or villify those that disagree with your agenda. It is dangerous to the American people to take ANY administration at it’s word. We should all be able to read something we find inaccurate or partisan and walk away with at least a deeper understanding of the issue.
No one is “wholely bad or good.” Every question results in an opportunity to learn.
Sierra Rose said,
September 15, 2007 @ 11:01 am
We admire people who speak truth to power. I doubly admire Helen Thomas because she always asks for truth from power.
e said,
September 15, 2007 @ 12:10 pm
i like helen thomas - she mixes it up with the stupid sheep that seem to be great at posting comments
P.Gillespie said,
September 15, 2007 @ 12:45 pm
Perhaps the real joke is the White House Press Corp. If they can’t laugh at themselves then we certainly ought to. Are they the guys who brought us the language of complacency and the imagery of being “embedded” at the source, or was it the bureau editors or the publishers. Somewhere in the journalism “chain of command” there was enforced discipline, if only the financial discipline of getting your story published…, or not!
chris said,
September 15, 2007 @ 1:36 pm
helen will outlive tony. interesting. one has spent their professional life trying to get to the truth while the other has spent it trying to spin the truth or cover up the truth or just plain lie. poor tony. good luck on the speech circuit making all your money. sad.
psgoodguy said,
September 15, 2007 @ 1:45 pm
i would never intentionally wish the snowjob and ill will. that being said, thankfully mother nature is doing her thing and he’s about 6 chemo treatments from the daisy patch. this does not sadden me.
Jason said,
September 15, 2007 @ 1:45 pm
What is truth? Is truth what one believes. Is truth information that is objectively analyzed by experts in that field and outside that field or is truth what is shoved down the throats of people by that is biased and so far the that make Marx look like Ross Perot. As for the White House Press Secretary isn’t there job is to provide information to the reporters that the President of the United States has stated can be revealed without letting our enemies and making sure that a public panic doesn’t ensue. Plus isn’t the job of a reporter to gather all the information they can and objectively without putting personal politics or beliefs into it report on the facts just the fact and all the facts to the public they serve. Helen Thomas is no more a reporter then Karl Marx was a rich white aristocrat. Tony Snow is just doing his job the one he is paid to do. Granted their personal beliefs are strikingly different but does that mean one is wrong and liar anymore than the other. we often let personal beliefs get in the way of rationality and that is understandable. I don’t think that the Helen Thomas is doing her job for that for that fact she is not doing what a reporter should do and that is report the whole story both sides without her personal take. Many of you will disagree and many will agree and that is peoples right but isn’t the underlying story is that one is willing to work and take the ridicule that Tony Snow for there country. I don’t see Helen Thomas doing that. Plus to all those you have resort to cursing and to personal attacks are either not intelligent enough to understand the facts are so self loathing that is the only way to make yourself feel better and hopefully this isn’t the case actually want the United States of America to become another run of the country in the world and not stand out because of it’s excellence and everything that it has accomplished to become the greatest country in the history of the world. Always remember that if we had lost the American Revolution the founding fathers that wrote that Declaration of Independence would have been killed as traitors and the great document that all the law of this great country come from the Consitution would not have been written then would Helen Thomas be able to say and ask what see pleases.
NTodd said,
September 15, 2007 @ 2:38 pm
This crop of comments from the Foxheads shows in abundance their class and their devotion to rational discussion. Just because Thomas is DOING HER JOB as a journalist and not accepting the administration’s bullshit at face value, the clueless conservative comissars slag her age and her gender. Don’t even try to defend your precious Bush on the issues Helen raises, just take the typically intellectually cowardly route of the cons and make your cheap shots and impugn her “knowledge”. Helen Thomas has stood up to the bullshit-slingers in the White House for 45 years (Republican AND Democrat) and she knows more about honesty and integrity than all the propagandists at Fox and all the nutless neocons put together. You owe her a debt of gratitude, not your cheapass disrespect.
Shano said,
September 15, 2007 @ 2:40 pm
Well Jason, When you see the Bush Administration trying to take those very Constitutional rights away from American people, including the right to free speech, right to trial, right to privacy, thank our lucky stars there will be reporters like Helen Thomas asking the right questions.
chris said,
September 15, 2007 @ 2:59 pm
Hey jason…what makes the USA the greatest country in the history of the world? What is your criteria? seriously. blind patriotism is one thing but to seriously state that the USA is the greatest country ever should require at least at little explanation. fire away…
Tyler said,
September 15, 2007 @ 3:35 pm
Apparently Extreme Mortman is perfectly comfortable posting hate speech on its site:
“September 14, 2007 @ 7:59 pm
I know Nancy, those poor poor Jews.. I mean, Israelis. They can’t survive without milking the US of money.
How about this, fuck the Israelis, and fuck the white house. We have other issues to take care of beside a bunch of fucking Jews.”–James Foxx
First-Amendment rights notwithstanding, this antiSemetic vitriol has no place in any reasonable debate among civilized people. Nonetheless I support Foxx’s right to publically reveal himself as a bigot of the least educated kind.
P.S. For the length of her career Helen Thompson has been speaking truth to power. May she live on and on.
Homer said,
September 15, 2007 @ 3:48 pm
How far have we fallen that asking for truth from power is a form of activism? Isn’t it simply a responsibility of every citizen? If Helen’s questions were so far out of line, shouldn’t Snow have been able to easily deal with them with facts instead of condescending bluster and lies?
Kitty said,
September 15, 2007 @ 4:02 pm
Helen Rocks! Hey how come no one responded to the Jeff Gannon comment? Does anyone know where he went to journalism school? Or do they teach that at porn camp? Hmm, anyhoo remember the good ole days when a porn star had access to White House press breifings and got called on to ask inane questions time and time again. Those were the days huh? While Iraq was burning and U.S. soldiers and Iraqis were dying and the cradle of civilization was being shocked and awed on directives from this war dodging president and his phsychopathic side kick who shoots his own friends. But I digress, I just thought a little stroll down memory lane was in order for those of you who seem to have such issues with Miss Thomas. I mean of course she’s no falafel rubbing pervert Bill Oreilly or senile old sweaty potty mouth Bob Novak, but I think she does a good job. Go Helen!
Jason said,
September 15, 2007 @ 4:04 pm
The documents that are the foundation of this country. The electoral process which the most orginal in the world and the history of the world. The fact the US structure of Govt in many ways is the structure of most successful countries of the world. Plus until very recently we had a military that no matter where it went knew that it had a country behind it till victory was assured. One shouldn’t have to ask what makes this country great for if you have ask the question then you don’t think the country is great. A country where people can disagree and ask truth to power or question what the govt does without fear of getting harmed or killed. Hopefully that is enough for you if it isn’t read some history.
Kevin Way, Way Downey said,
September 15, 2007 @ 4:20 pm
“Kevin Downey” said, “Helen Thomas is a walking, talking, living, breathing argument for term limits for journalists.”
“Kevin,” you *are* aware that journalists are not elected officials. Aren’t you?
P.S. Here’s a little more help for you: 2 + 2 = 4. You need it, because your education is deficient.
ats said,
September 15, 2007 @ 4:37 pm
What effrontery on Helen’s part to think someone of arab extraction should be allowed on American television. But with his rapper wit, Tony quickly relegated her (and all policy critics) to the ranks of Hezzbollah. Somewhere Abe Foxman danced a little jig.
AIPAC hardly needs its own network when it has the White House and Fox.
Tony Snow is an nice guy and a tolerably quick study but, say Gore Vidal, would do to him what Zorro once did to candles. On the other hand, Tony is a big improvement on the likes of Bill Kristol, who thinks glittery eyes and a wide smile suffice to atone for mistake after mistake, or pudgewacket Tucker Carlson, who fanices that frowning is the same as thinking.
Jim Treacher said,
September 15, 2007 @ 4:38 pm
HER JOB is to ask questions, not the same question, reworded, over and over. (Namely: “Why don’t you agree with my assertions?”)
Troll Smiter said,
September 15, 2007 @ 4:40 pm
I’d love to reply to the trolls, but I know they can’t read.
Still… die trolls!
seanmahair said,
September 15, 2007 @ 5:31 pm
Helen Thomas is the worst excuse for a journalist that I have ever had the misfortune to be exposed to. Her “job” is to ask the tough questions, not as someone else said, the same question over and over. Her job is also to ask everyone the “tough questions” but as long as you belong to the correct party, that will determine the toughness of the questions.
Go back to the 8 years of the Slickmiester, especially the Monica affair and find the “tough questions” handed out by Thomas. She has no claim to objectivity, she is biased, everyone knows she’s biased and still she takes up a seat in the Press Room that a real reporter could be using.
Surely this woman has reached mandatory retirement age. Surely. She makes Connie Chung and Katie Couric look like real reporters.
mam said,
September 15, 2007 @ 6:07 pm
Jason said:
1. “The documents that are the foundation of this country.”
Documents, particularly the Bill of Rights, that this administration has p****d all over, eviscerating every amendment, save the Second (mustn’t take the wingnuts’ guns away!), to the point where it argues that protection against unreasonable search and seizure, or the right to a speedy trial, or the 792-year-old right to habeas corpus (google Magna Carta, fool) no longer apply…to US CITIZENS. [Quoth GWBush to Congressional leaders in a December 2005 White House meeting “Stop throwing the Constitution in my face. It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”]
2. “The electoral process which the most original in the world and the history of the world.”
Which has now been outsourced to private companies, who refuse to permit oversight of their equipment or software, claiming that they have proprietary rights….to our “free, public” elections!
3. “The fact the US structure of Govt in many ways is the structure of most successful countries of the world.”
Simply flat wrong. Do some basic homework, dude. Of the world’s top 10 economies (assuming that’s how you define “successful), 8 are parliamentary systems, with prime ministers who can be recalled by a parliamentary vote of no confidence – not a megalomaniac who thinks he has an imprimatur from God. What countries have strong presidencies? Hmmm, lesseee. There’s Russia – Putin’s doing a bang-up job with democracy there, if you discount the occasional political assassination via plutonium-laced tea. Or dissolving the government and installing your croney. Oh, and Pakistan – where Musharraf just accuses his political opponents of corruption and slaps them on a plane to Riyadh. And mustn’t forget one of our brave members of the coalition of the willing - Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan, who has outlawed any political opposition or free press. One could go on…..
4. “Plus until very recently we had a military that no matter where it went knew that it had a country behind it till victory was assured.”
Yeah. “Victory” Saw a lot of that in Vietnam – along with 58,000 American dead until this country finally wised up to the obscene waste. Define “victory” when you’re in the midst of a civil war, especially when, as in Iraq, you’re arming and funding both sides.
5. “One shouldn’t have to ask what makes this country great for if you have ask the question then you don’t think the country is great”.
I happen to think this country IS great, largely due to its people, for all their human flaws. And the structure of our government and laws IS wonderful, but it has also shown itself with this administration to not be foolproof when you have a Congress that refuses to exercise its responsibilities to the Constitution and to ensuring the separation of powers. The question “what makes us great” is one that should always be asked, and we should always be measuring the country’s reality against its aspirations. Why, for example, does a serious illness in this nation put you at risk of losing your home and everything else you own – when it doesn’t anywhere in Western Europe, or Japan, or Canada. If we say we believe in justice for all, then how does that reconcile with Guantanamo – or simply with what’s going on right now with black teens in Jena, Louisiana?
“A country where people can disagree and ask truth to power or question what the govt does without fear of getting harmed or killed.”
Riiiiight. As long as you stay in the “Free Speech Zone,” and as long as you don’t consider seizure of your assets, warrantless tapping of your phones and reading of your email, or incarceration without due process, to be “harm.” Or mind being told by all the little fascists that any disagreement, or even questioning, of this pathetic administration’s policies and incompetence is aiding the enemy, even when you’re a US Senator on the Armed Services committee. [Quoth Pentagon twit Eric Edelman in July 2007 letter to Hillary Clinton: “Premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq reinforces enemy propaganda.”] Read about Josh Rushing’s first assignment for Al-Jazeera in North Dakota, and tell me again how free and brave we in this country are now.
Mike said,
September 15, 2007 @ 6:11 pm
Why is it that whenever a reporter asks a legitimate tough question of this incompetent administration, conservatives automatically confuse it with sedition? Conservatives seem to believe that groupthink is synonymous with patriotism.
letigre said,
September 15, 2007 @ 7:28 pm
When Helen is gone, who will ask any of these questions. It will be a sad day.
Art said,
September 15, 2007 @ 8:19 pm
The only reason Helen repeats a question is because Tony would never give her an honest answer.
mark said,
September 15, 2007 @ 8:31 pm
looks like the right wing finally learned how to type! see? no child left behind!!!!
Jim Treacher said,
September 15, 2007 @ 8:33 pm
There you go, a perfect example of a Helen Thomas “question” (i.e., factually shaky assertion followed by a question mark).
Gracie said,
September 15, 2007 @ 8:55 pm
“Helen Thomas is the nutty old aunt who lives in your attic”
Yeah and they frequently turn out to be right and full of knowledge when you take the time to really listen to them. I think it is easy to label people old and nutty when they cease to care about conventions and what people think….and just start saying things regardless of whether we like what they are saying.
FididdlyDaily.blogspot.com said,
September 15, 2007 @ 8:59 pm
What you’re seeing is a game between two old pros. Helen Thomas is using an old-fashioned journalistic technique of trying to provoke an unguarded response. (Imagine what kind of off-the-cuff remark you might get from W.!) Tony Snow has turned the tables on her: He’s frustrating her until she’s ready to explode. He makes her make herself look bad.
By making Helen Thomas out to be some kind of a clown, you’re all giving testimony to Tony Snow’s extraordinary skills.
Nowadays the White House press corps is criticized for being too much a part of the machine, too easily co-opted by the administration–have we forgotten Judith Miller?–and too professionally bland to wring truth from the powerful. Helen is a holdover from a time when the press corps was scrappy and proud of it.
We ought to be proud of her.
chris said,
September 15, 2007 @ 9:02 pm
dito what mam said. i also think this is a great country. but i’m not oblivious to our problems. we are not keeping up to others in some basic areas (health care, poverty). Is a great military neccessary for greatness? What should the criteria be? also, a parliament versus a republic? i pick a parliament everytime. we still elect the president using the electoral college for heavens sake. it’s kind of embarassing. it would also be very difficult for anyone to still argue that we are the most “free” citizens in the world. that ship has sailed. we can and should be a better country. period.
Tensay said,
September 15, 2007 @ 9:09 pm
“One shouldn’t have to ask what makes this country great for if you have ask the question then you don’t think the country is great.”
-Mien Fuhrer, I can Valk!-
Fuck you Jason and your neocon pseudo-intellectualism. This country is what it is, a great nation and an unrequited horror show.
Helen rocks!
Tom, Hattiesburg, MS said,
September 15, 2007 @ 9:39 pm
IF ONLY Helen Thomas were just doing her job, but her job is “journalist”, and the job she’s doing is “advocate.” We’re constantly told how journalists may have biases, but they are professional enough to be neutral. And here is Helen Thomas, who’s long since dropped any pretenses and feels free to lecture the White House spokesman when she’s supposed to be asking questions. When she does ask a question, it’s of the “Does he know we have civilian rule in this country?” variety. She’s smug, condescending, and full of herself.
In short, she’s forgotten she’s a journalist, and has become some sort of crusading condescending antiBush. She’s incapable of treating the president with respect any more, and thinks that SHE speaks for the American people, even though it’s the President who actually WAS elected, while she was merely … hired.
KarenZipdrive said,
September 15, 2007 @ 9:49 pm
Helen Thomas crap is more journalistically credible than Tony Snow.
She certainly didn’t start her probing media career with President Pinhead, it’s just that W. and his crew have been bigger crybabies about it. Sniveling liars like Bush & Co. hate people like Helen Thomas because she refuses to be intimidated, mollified or bullshitted.
If the truth hurts, Helen Thomas has taken a bullwhip to these thin-skinned phonies.
Darla Wisconsin said,
September 15, 2007 @ 9:55 pm
I should only be that alert and smart if I reach her age. ‘Bless you, Helen !”
Jason said,
September 15, 2007 @ 11:51 pm
First all what is with the cursing I understand that you can do it but to stoop to those levels is just wrong. Plus being poor in America is a bad thing the last time i checked the poor in America are alot better off then the middle class in most other countries. Obiviously you haven’t read or heard the stats of the recent poverty report. Most people who are uninsured chose to be that way. I know people who the ability to get medical coverage and chose not to so there goes that theory and why should the govt take care of everything anyways. You are right congress hasn’t done enough but not with controlling the presidency but controlling the judicary . Plus the electoral college was designed to protect the electing of the president from being elected by the people for most of the people are not informed enough to make an informed decision. on that account. I happen to agree with that. A military doesn’t make it great but it does keep it great by protecting from enemies who wish to destroy the foundations that this country is built on. Plus what is wrong with being a neo-con since when is that a nasty phrase like lets say communistic socialistic liberal. It is wrong to question authority but it wrong to say that you support the troops but then don’t ask the general in charge of those what congress can do to help those troops is wrong. and calling a 4star general a puppet and a crony is also wrong and not supporting the troops at all. Just a thought
chris said,
September 16, 2007 @ 12:37 am
i guess education must be on our list of things to fix next jason because i don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.
Gord said,
September 16, 2007 @ 9:55 am
It is apparent from reading some of the comments that what is going on behind some writers eyes is more important and the words on the page. What Helen is doing is the job of all journalists in a free society. She is asking the difficult questions. Readers need to pay more attention to the answers. The white house press gallery will be much poorer when she finally takes her reward for a life well lived. Thank you Helen for doing your job. At least there is evidence that there is one member of the press gallery that does not take dictation and call it journalism.
mam said,
September 16, 2007 @ 5:41 pm
Jason said:
1. “calling a 4star general a puppet and a crony is also wrong”
Not when he has demonstrated that he IS a puppet and a crony. No one survived the regime of Donald Rumsfeld without serious skills in kissing up to power and telling the war party what they wanted to hear. Petraeus’ own boss, Admiral Wm Fallon, has called him an “a**-kissing little chickensh**t” If you’ll do a brief tour back in time, you’ll find that Petraeus was telling all of us in 2004 - especially in an NYT op-ed conveniently published six weeks before the 2004 election, when it would bolster Bush - that things were looking great in Iraq and that the training of Iraqi police, which he was in charge of at that time, was going swimmingly. That would be the same Iraqi police force that is so corrupt and so thoroughly infiltrated by insurgents that a 20 member panel of military officers just recommended that the entire force should be scrapped. Journey a bit further back in time to General Westmoreland and his many “we’re making great progress” reports to Congress re Vietnam. Just because someone has a pound of fruit salad on his chest is no guarantee of their probity or honesty.
2. “the electoral college was designed to protect the electing of the president from being elected by the people for most of the people are not informed enough to make an informed decision.”
And you would be a prime example.
rjschwarz said,
September 17, 2007 @ 10:45 am
She has no *right* to get called on. If she can’t act like an adult and stop speaking over others and lecturing instead of asking questions they should refuse to call on her.
Duane Gillies said,
September 17, 2007 @ 11:05 am
Helen, sadly, is proof positive that people out-live their usefullness.
RealityCheck said,
September 17, 2007 @ 1:55 pm
Tony Snow has no concept of what the American people face. He earned over $150,000 a year in his position and said he had to leave to earn money to live on. Over 95% of Americans live on less that, how dare he insult all of them. Like many top level GOPers only in it for the money.
sluggo said,
September 17, 2007 @ 4:13 pm
Helen’s goodbye to Tony: http://www.sltrib.com/ci_6818328
Scott said,
September 21, 2007 @ 4:13 pm
Somebody said ‘Go Helen’…. I agree go….back to the Soviet Union where apparently you’d be much more content. Buh-bye.