It was a great piece. But your criticism is incorrect; that reference to a white house spokesman was in the original excerpt; Thomas made no mistake.
You're both right about the quote. I failed to see the single quotation marks withn the double quotation marks. And I am delighted to see that Cal Thomas did NOT make a mistake.
Grumble, grumble, grumble...you can't get away with anything on FR. (Guess that's why I love it.)