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Helen Thomas: Bush a Work in Progress
Drudgereport ^ | 27 Jan 02 | Jodie Fawl

Posted on 01/26/2002 8:27:21 PM PST by SkyPilot

White House reporter shares insights BY JODIE FAWL Lincoln Journal Star

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Skipping from civil liberties to Enron to presidential news coverage, longtime White House correspondent Helen Thomas regaled members of the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce Thursday with tales about the highest of the mighty.

"I've always felt privileged to cover the White House and to have that ringside seat to history," she said.

Thomas' career has spanned 60 years and nine presidents. She resigned from United Press International in May 2000 when it was sold to New World Communications, a company controlled by the Unification Church.

"We have all watched Helen on TV," said Gov. Mike Johanns as he introduced her to a chamber audience of about 700 at The Cornhusker. "I told her I feel like we know you so well I should have you over for dinner."

Thomas quickly accepted.

Although her speech was laced with one-liners, witticisms and funny asides, many of her topics were more serious.

For example: "What a difference a day makes," she said. After the Cold War "we thought we would live happily every after. There is no question, we're all playing it by ear. There is no road map for dealing with terrorism."

And she said she was struck by how easily Americans have given up some civil liberties in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.

She understands the need for more airport security, Thomas said, but racial profiling, wiretapping and government intrusions on private property are too much.

"We cannot be ruled by fear - that's not us," she said.

As a gimlet-eyed observer of the nation's chief executive, Thomas has come to believe that presidents have the greatest honor: the trust of the American people.

"My feeling is, if they want to go into politics they should forgo their privacy. They should decide when they are five and live like Sunday school teachers."

The whole world - and news coverage of it - has changed since the 1960s, when she started on the presidential watch. Among the most written about: A sexual revolution and a cultural revolution.

She said the press corps followed a "golden rule that if it didn't affect the running of the country, they didn't need to report on it. We weren't protecting anybody."

As President Bill Clinton reached his last days in office, Thomas asked him what White House possession he would like to take with him.

His reply: the rock Neal Armstrong brought back from the moon. Whenever tension filled the Oval Office, Clinton said, he would point to the rock and tell those present to "chill out." The rock was 3.6 billion years old, he said; they needed perspective.

"I think the rock is still there, but I'm not sure," Thomas said.

She also shared with the group her impressions of the presidents she covered.

John F. Kennedy was "inspired," she said, and the current President Bush is "a work in progress."

Richard Nixon "always had two roads to go, and he always took the wrong road."

Thomas said that in the White House press room there is a photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. His signed inscription speaks to the uneasy truce between presidents and the grim crowd that records their every utterance: "To reporters - from their devoted victim."

Reach Jodie Fawl at 473-7235 or jfawl@journalstar.com.

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To: SkyPilot
"...Dear Helen--what have you accomplished? Other than grabbing fame from others?..."

I don't know what her 'papers' say...

('papers' can easily be 'pencil whipped', so it doesn't really matter)

Judging by her appearance Helen has seen all of History unfold...

Firsthand.

I’m not saying that her 'first' name was Eve, but I wouldn’t rule out Lilith.

61 posted on 01/27/2002 4:40:05 AM PST by DWSUWF
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To: SkyPilot
"Helen Thomas is pathetic."
Here she is with her FAVORITE president. . .



62 posted on 01/27/2002 4:50:43 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
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To: stocksthatgoup
"Helen Thomas: A Piece of Work!"

Helen Thomas: A [Badly Unfinished] Piece of Work!.

63 posted on 01/27/2002 5:02:15 AM PST by Wonder Warthog
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To: xcon
LOL, You spoke too soon. Check out #62..:)
64 posted on 01/27/2002 5:02:35 AM PST by JD86
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Comment #65 Removed by Moderator

Comment #66 Removed by Moderator

To: SkyPilot
Gee,isn't it a shame that Helen has retired!She was so even-handed and un-biased!!
67 posted on 01/27/2002 5:26:36 AM PST by bandleader
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To: rockfish59
You mean somebody married her and she reproduced?
68 posted on 01/27/2002 5:31:39 AM PST by JENINMO
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To: SkyPilot
She said the press corps followed a "golden rule that if it didn't affect the running of the country, they didn't need to report on it. We weren't protecting anybody."
 
As President Bill Clinton reached his last days in office, Thomas asked him what White House possession he would like to take with him.
 
His reply: the rock Neal Armstrong brought back from the moon. Whenever tension filled the Oval Office, Clinton said, he would point to the rock and tell those present to "chill out." The rock was 3.6 billion years old, he said; they needed perspective.
 
"I think the rock is still there, but I'm not sure," Thomas said.
 

Helen Thomas: Bush a Work in Progress

 

Q ERTY6 helen thomas syndrome REALITY CHECK!

NO NOSE FOR NEWS: THE HELEN THOMAS STORY

by Mia T, 1.27.02
 
A reliable-source friend of mine has a better nose for new, so it seems, than perennial press-corps prop, Helen Thomas.

 

This friend warned me years ago, when Oval-Office occupation by the clintons was in its mere incipiency, that the wife already had designs on the White House furnishing, that she had quickly acquired the nasty habit of pilfering from the White House drapery fund.

 

Nonetheless, when I created the following metaphoric musing on January 1, 2000, more than a year before the clintons -- uh -- "moved," I never imagined that she would -- that they would -- in real life -- in real time -- actually swipe the sofa.
 
Smaller objects neatly tuck-able in nuncupative deals & unnumbered Swiss accounts, without question...

BUT THE SOFA??

"I think the rock is still there, but I'm not sure," Helen quipped. Her punch line to clinton's response to her question about a -- (only in Helen's mind) -- 'fantasy' -- clinton kleptocracy, was in fact 4th-estate CYA-ing disguised as a joke.

Unbeknownst to the always clueless Helen, however, the one-liner she was delivering was indeed a joke; it was the butt of the joke that was her misreport...

In the end,
if clinton's arrogant, ruthless, reckless nature is restored to him,
it seems the joke will be on all of us,
for it will be a victory for infinite victimhood and irresponsibility,
for seduction, for violence, for nihilism, for anarchy.
 
We will have set apart clinton as the hero
by making his victims less human than he;
we will have allowed clinton to carefully estrange us from his victims
so that we can enjoy the rapes and the beatings
as much as clinton himself does.

Mia T, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE

 


69 posted on 01/27/2002 5:41:17 AM PST by Mia T
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To: SkyPilot
"Helen Thomas: Bush a Work in Progress"

Bush: Helen Thomas a Jerk in Progress

70 posted on 01/27/2002 5:43:46 AM PST by theDentist
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To: Van Delay Industries
Oh please!

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't President Bush giving someone in the audience the "Hook 'em horns" sign from the University of Texas?

I have no clue who or what Clinton is gesturing to or what he means by it (something "salacious" knowing him) but if you're trying to say that Bush and Clinton are all part of some grand secret conspiracy, I think you're making about as much sense today as you were yesterday when you thought it might be possible that our special forces troops supplied the hand grenades to the prisoners at Mazar e Sharif.

71 posted on 01/27/2002 5:45:36 AM PST by Gamma-131-I
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To: Lazamataz

 

Q ERTY1 helen thomas syndrome REALITY CHECK!

She said the press corps followed a "golden rule that if it didn't affect the running of the country, they didn't need to report on it. We weren't protecting anybody."

Helen Thomas: Bush a Work in Progress

 


72 posted on 01/27/2002 5:46:13 AM PST by Mia T
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To: SkyPilot
This has been posted before, but deserves repetition.

Helen Thomas is a "death in progress," both physically and journalistically.

Congressman Billybob

73 posted on 01/27/2002 5:49:36 AM PST by Congressman Billybob
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To: SkyPilot
"We have all watched Helen on TV," said Gov. Mike Johanns as he introduced her to a chamber audience of about 700 at The Cornhusker. "I told her I feel like we know you so well I should have you over for dinner."

Thomas quickly accepted.

Helen Thomas: --Not known for missing a chow line...

74 posted on 01/27/2002 5:53:35 AM PST by Yougottabekidding
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To: Van Delay Industries; MJY1288
I was bumping the thread to the top. Funny picture =

Unless you can explain why it's funny to say "new world order" above a picture of President Bush and Clintoon, I don't buy your answer. I noticed that yesterday you had a picture of George from Seinfeld on your homepage with the sentence "Tell a lie often enough and people will believe it." And today you have "remember the red zone." Well, the "red zone" voted for President BUSH, so your comments like "Earth to Bush: remember the red zone" or the bizarre collage you put together don't really make sense.

75 posted on 01/27/2002 7:46:55 AM PST by Cinnamon Girl
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Comment #76 Removed by Moderator

To: Congressman Billybob
NO! No! No! Billybob. Ms Thomas is favored to win the Ms. Democrat Beauty Pageant crown which is being held in Atlantic City to replace the old tired-out Miss America Pageant which is rumored to be moving to Las Vegas. It will be a tough climb for Ms. Thomas. Her competition includes Hillary, Janet, Rosie, Barbra and Barney Frank.
77 posted on 01/27/2002 8:30:54 AM PST by Tribune7
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To: patriciaruth
Van Delay has never been to Texas or he would know that the sign being made by President Bush is the Hook 'em Horns for the Texas Longhorns. President Bush is definitely making that sign because his thumb is touching the two middle fingers to make the snout of the longhorn steer.

Well, there you go. But secretly, it's the sign of the NWO!! Be afraid, patriciaruth. Be VERY afraid. :)

78 posted on 01/27/2002 8:41:03 AM PST by DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet
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To: DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet
Be VERY AFRAID

Of a Longhorn steer? You betcha I am!

Teehee.

79 posted on 01/27/2002 1:22:46 PM PST by patriciaruth
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To: SkyPilot
Helen Thomas, like Generalissimo Franciso Franco, is still....Dead.

(How would we know?)

80 posted on 02/11/2002 4:57:09 AM PST by FReethesheeples
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