Helen Thomas (1920-2013)

Helen Thomas, who died yesterday at 92, was ready for business in the front row of the White House briefing room this day in August 2006.

"How the hell do they expect us to believe that?"

-- a favorite aside of Helen Thomas during White House
press briefings, as remembered by CBS News's Bill Plante

by Ken

I'm happy to see how positively Helen Thomas is being remembered -- more positively, probably, than many of those same people regarded her when she was making her mark over her long, great career as a reporter who fought back against bullshit.

Even the "mistake" that sealed her final doom in D.C. circles, her remark that Israel should get out of Palestine, was in no way wrong on the facts -- it was just wrong in that responsible Village media types don't say such things.

CBS News has put out a lovely remembrance by her longtime White House colleague Bill Plante:

Helen Thomas always wanted answers from the President of the United States.

"Mr. President, when you holding a news conference?"

As the White House correspondent for United Press International for 40 years, and then as a columnist, Thomas confronted 10 presidents with bulldog persistence.

"Why did you really want to go to war?" she queried President George W. Bush.

She was a pathbreaker for women in journalism. Born to Lebanese immigrants, Thomas grew up in Michigan. After college, she moved to Washington -- and in 1943, went to work as a writer for United Press.

Her big break came in 1960, when she became the first woman reporter at the White House to cover the president -- and not just the first lady.

She went on to be the first female president of the White House Correspondents Association, and the first woman admitted to another Washington journalism institution, the Gridiron Club.

President Johnson once complained that he first learned of his daughter Luci's engagement from one of Thomas' stories.

But her own engagement -- to Associated Press reporter Doug Cornell -- was only revealed after Pat Nixon spilled the beans to a room full of their colleagues.

Helen Thomas laughed easily with one president after another, but that never stopped her from asking them hard questions.

I sat next to Helen in the White House briefing room for years, on the receiving end of countless asides and opinions. One of her favorites, usually delivered sotto voce during a press briefing, was, "How the hell do they expect us to believe that?"

Helen Thomas was tough, cantankerous, and opinionated. Her opinions ultimately got her in trouble.

A lifelong champion of the Palestinian cause, she said in an impromptu 2010 interview that Israel should get out of Palestine.

After apologizing for the remark, she retired.

In a statement, President Obama said, "She never failed to keep presidents -- myself included -- on their toes. What made Helen the dean of the White House press corps was not just the length of her tenure, but her fierce belief that our democracy works best when we ask tough questions and hold our leaders to account."

How many of us get to look back over a career as well-spent as Helen Thomas's? Job well done, Helen -- thanks.

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Joe Sestak Takes On Elder Abuse-- Bill O'Reilly On The Other Hand...

Most of the votes the House has been taking lately are for non-controversial projects like Supporting the goals and ideals of National Girls and Women in Sports Day (which passed 398-0), Recognizing and commending University of Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford for winning the 2008 Heisman Trophy and for his academic and athletic accomplishments (passed 394-0), and Recognizing the 50th Anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.s visit to India, and the positive influence that the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi had on Dr. Kings work during the Civil Rights Movement (passed 406-0), Normally not even the worst obstructionist Republicans bother voting against any of this stuff.

In fact, yesterday, when Nancy Pelosi offered H. Res 154 honoring John D. Dingell for holding the record as the longest serving member of the House of Representatives, every single Republican joined every single Republican to pass it 423-0. It seemed like a good day for Joe Sestak's resolution, the Elder Abuse Victim's Act. It was co-sponsored by three influential Democrats, John Conyers (MI), Elijah Cummings (MD) and Bobby Scott (VA), and a fine garden variety pair of wingnuts, Ted Poe (R-TX) and Peter King (R-NY) and seemed to be a no brainer. The purpose is to "protect seniors in the United States from elder abuse by establishing specialized elder abuse prosecution and research programs and activities to aid victims of elder abuse, to provide training to prosecutors and other law enforcement related to elder abuse prevention and protection, to establish programs that provide for emergency crisis response teams to combat elder abuse." Who could vote against a bill like that?

Well... before I tell you who, I have a little theory. Adam, our Art Director, sits around drinking and smoking all day, watching Fox News. He's been telling me all week that Bill O'Reilly called distinguished and beloved senior White House journalist Helen Thomas the Wicked Witch of the East and mocking her age and appearance. You can watch his original outbursts here. Then today, when Adam was loaded on whatever that McDonald's kid in Florida was on who asked Obama about getting him a raise, he went bonkers over O'Reilly defending his bout of televised elder abuse. Watch:



So meanwhile Sestak's Elder Abuse Victims Act comes up and the 25 most bigoted and cowardly Republicans decide they'd better not cross O'Reilly... and vote NO! 248 Democrats and 149 Republicans voted yes. But the looniest of the fringe kooks all got together and voted against preventing abuse of America's oldest and most vulnerable citizens, mostly savagely right-wing fanatics from Georgia, Texas and Arizona. Here's the list: 25 Republicans who either must hate the elderly or are just so far up O'Reilly's ass that they couldn't take the chance to vote for the bill and offend his thin skin!

Todd Akin (R-MO)
Gresham Barrett (R-SC)
Kevin Brady (R-TX)
Paul Broun (R-GA)
John Carter (R-TX)
Mike Conaway (R-TX)
Nathan Deal (R-GA)
Jeff Flake (R-AZ)
Virginia Foxx (R-NC-- and if anybody should be sympathetic about people referring to elderly women as looking like a witch...)
Trent Franks (R-AZ)
Scott Garrett (R-NJ)
Jeb Hensarling (R-TX)
Bob Inglis (R-SC)
Steve King (R-IA)
Jack Kingston (R-GA)
John Linder (R-GA)
Cynthia Lummis (R-WY)
Tom McClintock (R-CA)
Randy Neugebauer (R-TX)
Ron Paul (R-TX)
Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA)
James Sensenbrenner (R-WI)
John Shadegg (R-AZ)
Mac Thornberry (R-TX)
and, of course, Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA)