Thomas is a Terror

For those who missed the spectacle of yesterday's Propaganda Photo-Op, a good video trilogy collection of the McClellan/Bush script is posted at One Good Move.

A side note to the Iraq troop video event occurred during the Daily Press Briefing, when an obviously irritated Scott McClellan remarked that Helen Thomas opposes the "War on Terror." Why? Because she had the temerity to question what Bush meant by saying that the U.S. won't leave Iraq until we have "total victory." See the Huffington Post: The White House Attacks A Reporter. A transcript of the Question/Answer session can be found at Editor & Publisher: Scott McClellan Says Helen Thomas Opposes 'War on Terrorism' (A video of the exchange can be found at Crooks and Liars).

Helen Thomas, the dean of the White House Press Corp, has been a thorn in the side of the Bush Administration on Iraq (and many other issues) for many years. Not surprisingly, she went from the "First Lady of Journalism" to being marginalized by the Bush bunch, because she asks hard questions and does not suffer fools gladly (she called Bush the worst President ever).

I have a special fondness for her because she is also of Lebanese descent (last year, she was called an "old Arab" by that bigot, Ann Coulter), so I was particularly affronted by McClellan's comments. His statement was particularly offensive, since Thomas was one of the few journalists to inquire about the Iraq war, when other reporters stood by mutely, letting the Administration mislead us into war. She's been called "cranky," for her tenacious questions, but she could also be called right.