Posted on 03/05/2005 7:25:16 AM PST by kristinn
LOUDONVILLE - For 57 years former White House reporter Helen Thomas had a front row seat to history unfolding before her eyes, but she said the current administration is making her wish she was blind.
Thomas, who spoke at Siena College's First Woman President symposium Friday, also had plenty to say about serving as a White House correspondent for United Press International. Not all of it was encouraging.
"This president (Bush) doesn't think he has to answer any questions. ... He even says (during press conferences) this is scripted," bemoaned Thomas, 83, who gave up her reporter job to become a syndicated columnist two years ago and routinely trashes Bush on economic and military policy in her columns.
"He stopped taking questions from me," she added with a laugh.
She dubbed the war in Iraq "spreading democracy at gunpoint," calls Bush "the worst" president in American history, and blames Congress for not standing up to Bush on many issues along with the media for failing to ask the tough questions she never shied away from.
"Since September 11 (2001 terrorist attacks), reporters have been afraid to ask (tough) questions because they were afraid to be called un-American or unpatriotic, but (even when they do) the president doesn't answer them anyway," said Thomas, who added she believes reporters are beginning to get back to asking more hard-hitting questions.
While Bush might be her least favorite leader, Thomas had the most praise for President John F. Kennedy, the first commander in chief she covered. It was during Thomas' first White House assignment that she began closing presidential press conferences with, "Thank you, Mr. President," a tradition that lasted up until the current administration's reign.
"Kennedy was the most inspirational president. ... You always got the feeling with him that he knew he was living on borrowed time," said Thomas. "He gave people hope and that's something that's missing today."
Thomas joked a little about a Kennedy press conference she attended where he was talking to astronauts about going to the moon.
"He said to the astronauts 'Do you think we could land on the moon?' and they said 'sure,' but after he left (they said) they thought he was crazy," said Thomas, who pointed out that only seven years after Kennedy's assassination the first man did in fact land on the moon.
Thomas also was present at Kennedy's funeral the moment of his son John F. Kennedy Jr.'s, poignant salute that illustrated the nation's feelings of pain and loss.
Thomas was also the only female print journalist to travel with then President Richard Nixon to China and has also traveled around the globe several times with presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan, Clinton and both Bushes.
As the longest tenured White House correspondent, she also wanted people to know that there is no truth to the myth that the media is softer on a Democratic president than a Republican.
"I've never seen it that way. ... Do you really think the press was easy on (President) Clinton during (the) Monica Lewinsky (scandal)?" asked Thomas, who contends that Clinton "tarnished" the Oval Office but was the complete opposite of Bush when it came to answering questions.
"Clinton would answer any question you asked. ... He never flinched," she said.
She said she was appalled at how it was recently revealed that someone who wasn't even a real reporter (Jeff Gannon) was allowed a coveted spot in the White House press corps and called upon by the Bush administration to ask "softball" questions. "He didn't even have a (Capital) Hill pass or represented a credible, legitimate agency, but he was let in because he was considered friendly (to the Bush) administration," quipped Thomas.
She also called it despicable that the Department of Education paid a radio talk show host $240,000 to promote Bush's No Child Left Behind Act, and leaders from Bush's marriage initiative paid a syndicated columnist $10,000 to push their views.
"That's sad and reprehensible to see an administration pay off outsiders, but at least such practices have a way of getting exposed," she said.
On what makes a good president, Thomas said they should respect the honor and influence that comes with being president, and they use that power to simply "do the right thing."
"Our lives and futures are in the president's hands," she said. "Great presidents don't have to be macho, just great human beings."
Thomas is listed in the World Almanac as one of the 25 most influential women in America.
"Don't do the crime if you can't do the time."
I remember clearly that Clinton ceased having press conferences for a year when Monica came to light.
HT is an old communist cow.
International super starts? Baghdad Bob
Wat you want? She is famous as supported by this exerpt from MosNews:
""There is a popular opinion that Russia has the most beautiful girls: slender, well-groomed, with just the right amount of that mysterious soul mixed in. But what happens to all these babes later in life? Why are most middle-aged women in Russia squat and bitter, resembling Madeleine Albright rather than Sophie Loren? ""
Boxer/Pelosi
Jimmy Carter
Remembering how Clintonspeak works, you realize he really wasn't lying. Remember that the entire quote was ""I did not have sex with that woman, Monica Lewinsky, NOT ONE TIME."
Bubba didn't lie because it was MORE than one time.... Isn't English such a wonderful language... ;-)
Charlie "the putz" Schumer!
This ancient damsel couldn't find her butt with both hands and continues to have her mouth on automatic.
See 1st page of this thread.
It's a beautiful thing!
"Journalist Recalls Nearly 45 Years as White House Correspondent (Helen Thomas)"
"Propagandist Recalls Nearly 45 Years as White House Correspondent (Helen Thomas)"
57 years on the front seat, witnessing the fraud called socialism being exposed for the sham that it is, and seeing it crumble like sand castles when a wave hits the beach and she still despises Capitalism and this Free Republic of ours.
She has apparently been blind for over half a century and doesn't even know it.
LOL!We learn something new every day.
If she can't find, THAT, butt with both hands-what on earth can she find?
And on every day of those 57 years, history beat her with an ugly stick.
Thomas predicts a woman president by end of century - ( Hillary is a Female Knucklehead )
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