Helen Thomas is Still Bustin' Balls

OK...it's not the most hard hitting editorial, but Helen Thomas's column in tomorrow's Seattle Post Intelligencer is keenly observed and shows what an excellent reporter of White House shenanigans she still is after 62 years of covering those yahoos.

And if you missed her interview on Fresh Air tonight, you MUST hear it. She gives the White House press corps a raspberry for being such pussies after 9/11. "They didn't want to appear unpatriotic," she said. Ms. Thomas learned early in the first W. administration that she was persona non grata for asking the hard questions. After catching hell from Ari Fleisher for "blindsiding the President," she was ignored (and seated in the back row) at what she calls the President's "so-called" press conferences.

But she's not cowed by the Bushies' silent treatment. She says she won't bow to anyone, nor should any other American. "They are our public servants," she said. "They work for us."

God Damn, I love her. She's writing a book about how the press and Congress silently acquiesced while the Bushies sent our soldiers to war and I can't wait to read it. The mood in the press room may be shifting slightly, she says, as reporters realize they have been had (she saw the same thing happened during the Woodward & Bernstein era).

A lot of today's reporters are intimidated by Rove et. al. who deny access to White House sources if reporters bring displeasure to the monarch. When will they learn that a couple of "The White House refused to comment"s in their story might encourage the administration to knock that shit off. Or, like Eric Alterman suggested, how about if no one asks another question until the previous reporter gets a clear answer to theirs first? There are a helluva lot more reporters than there are of Bushies and they need the press far more than the press needs them.

Thank God Helen Thomas hasn't retired yet. Sounds like the White House press corps still needs a role model who still has balls.