finally, Helen Thomas is allowed a question at WH briefing (link)

[diamond14]

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/05/20040524-3.html


MR. McCLELLAN: ........Go ahead, Helen.

Q Does the President feel any responsibility in supporting Israel all-out in Gaza for the slaughter that's been going on, the demolition of hundreds of homes, children killed?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, Helen, I think we made --

Q Does he think that the U.S. support of all of these policies has put some of the blame on us?

MR. McCLELLAN: Our policy is to support a two-state vision that the President outlined. He was the first President to articulate a two-state vision --

Q -- supporting the policies in Gaza?

MR. McCLELLAN: -- based on two states, Palestine and Israel living side-by-side in peace and security. That's where our focus remains. Obviously, there have been some concerns we've had about some of the events on the ground. We expressed our concerns about those events on the ground. And we --

Q By abstaining at the U.N.?

MR. McCLELLAN: And we talked -- and we spoke about our position in terms of the destruction of homes of innocent Palestinians, and our position remains the same.

Q Why did we abstain on a U.N. Council condemnation of such acts?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think that we always look to make sure that resolutions are balanced. There are steps that all parties have responsibilities to meet called for under the road map. One of the first steps in that road map is to address --

Q Nothing -- to his road map --

MR. McCLELLAN: -- the terrorism and violence on the ground. And all parties have responsibilities when it comes to that.

[LittleApple81]

1. I bet this is her last one for a long...long...long time. n/t

[gristy]

4. Well, for no more than 8 months anyways!

:)

[calimary]

6. Well, maybe until late January, anyway.

The Kerry Administration will do things a little differently, I'm guessing.

[prodigal_green]

2. Can we declare a living human

a national treasure and assign them secret service agents to protect them?

If so, she should be first on the list.

[Snoggera]

3. They probably thought

the shock would kill her. Wrong again!

[Vickers]

7. Yup! Man, was she ready for that or WHAT!?!?!?!

Ol' Scotty Boy probably felt like slinking under a rock after that barrage.

[Malva Zebrina]

5. this is one of those cruel things that have happened due to the

cruelty of the Bush administration. An intelligent and gracious lady who has reached her old age, and has given much to our country and the prick Bush sees to it that she is taken from her honored first row seat and sent to the back of the classroom.

Bush can never ever approach the grace and the dignity this career woman has achieved over her lifetime. She is a goddess.

Bush is stupid trash compared to Helen.

He is, actually, trash, compared to anyone--

[calimary]

9. What's REALLY stupid trash is the rest of the White House Press Corps.

Bunch of spineless turds. Not ONE of them - NOT ONE - stood up for her or spoke out in her defense or voiced ANY objections to her being shunned and booted to the back of the room by these war criminals. NOT ONE. Not a peep out of ANY of 'em. Cowards all. I wrote an email complaining. Never heard ANYTHING back. To hell with them all. They're not fit to touch the hem of her garment.

[Malva Zebrina]

13. the system is broken

really it is.

We, as a country, are addicted to consumerism and money, buying toys, and items from
Abercrombie and Fitch, and wealth as the indicator of our indentity as wonderful people who have "made it" and we have grown children to believe that wealth is the indicator of their worth as human beings.


those who do not have it,strive forever to have it, believing that is the indication of their worth as human beings.

That is not truth.

[oasis]

8. McClellan is such a boring robot. (n/t)

[wtmusic]

10. He has Ari's old software--working on an upgrade--stay tuned n/t

[Steven_S]

11. If I owned a University of Journalism....

I would name it after her. She is in a class by herself.

[CBHagman]

12. Notice McClellan's boilerplate answer.

It's the same old thing. They do that little Bush-brag-athon on the proposal of a Palestinian state, the "two states living side by side in peace and security" shtick, and then some murmuring about responsibility. Then there's the reference to terrorism.

Look at transcripts of State Department and White House briefings. The spiel is the same.

Anyway, Helen Thomas asks a bona fide question, and all McClellan can pull out is the parrot routine. Feeble, feckless, impotent, and rude.

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. Looking at his non-answer

(because he couldn't bar to answer her question, so he pretended he heard a different one), it's a bald-faced lie:
"He was the first President to articulate a two-state vision -- based on two states, Palestine and Israel living side-by-side in peace and security."

Bollocks. Clinton certainly did; in fact I think probably every president back to Carter (as in the Camp David agreement), and maybe even to Nixon, has had this 'vision' - although not necessarily with the PLO leading Palestine.