Trashy Rumors and Journalism - Scotty's blowup at Helen Thomas

[RamboLiberal]

http://washingtonian.com/inwashington/buzz/mcclellan0204.html

Scott McClellan finally lost it Friday, according to White House reporters. He doesn’t see it that way.

The White House press secretary had kept his cool all week as reporters pounced on him about President George Bush’s 1970s service in the National Guard. Facing perhaps his toughest week as press secretary, McClellan got testy Tuesday under questioning by CBS correspondent John Roberts during the televised briefing. He then blew up at old pro Helen Thomas during the private “gaggle” for reporters on Friday.

Thomas had gotten a tip that Bush might have been absent from duty in Alabama because he was performing court-ordered community service in Texas in 1972. She asked McClellan if that was accurate.

According to reporters in the press room, McClellan got red-faced and became so angry, it looked to some as if he were ready to pounce. He characterized the question as coming from “gutter politics.”

Thomas, who has covered every president since Dwight Eisenhower and now writes a column for Hearst, was not fazed. “I think they are getting pretty nervous about this,” she said Friday afternoon. “I’ve learned over the years that when you put out records, it often leads to more questions.”

[alittlelark]

1. Helen Thomas is awesome!!

I wish I had seen it. She embodies what journalism USED to be.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

10. I never pass a chance to say I met her at an airport gate in Oakland and

talked to her for a while as we waited for our plane. We commisserated over this admin's assault on the Bill of Rights and the religious war(s).

I told her about performing a concert in a middle school in the deep rural south that had God Bless America and other religious notes all over the place. I left a lesson on the First Amendment and the seperation of church and state on a classroom blackboard. She loved this story.

I carry a small book copy of the US Constitution when I travel so I asked her to autograph it. She beamed warmly like a grandmother with a favorite grandchild and wrote something very nice.

It was great to share some time with a genuine hero who's still trying to protect what's left of our republic by asking hard questions to the powerful.

[xxqqqzme]

11. that is one great

story. I am green w/ envy. What a fabulous autograph 2 have on a copy of the constitution.

[NewJeffCT]

14. great story

And here I was proud that she sent me a nice email a month or two back...

[nostamj]

18. no one 'saw' it

it wasn't televised.

btw, I wrote to Helen this morning. asked her if she missed Ari and gave her a huge thumbs up for the encounter with 'Snotty'

i've had a couple of nice replies. they are short, but it's clear she really read the mail.

one of a kind.

[yellowcanine]

2. Helen has Scotty's Number

But there is not much he can do about it, because the other reporters will defend her right to have her questions answered.

[plaguepuppy]

3. Revenge is so sweet

And these bozos are going to go down very ugly...

Look, there's another wheel coming off!

[Cat Atomic]

19. And there's 9 more months to go.

This is going to be a very interesting year.

[Hogarth]

4. She'll always be my hero.

n/t

[AgadorSparticus]

5. Helen Thomas is one smart cookie.

Her comment regarding putting out more records sounds ominous for the bush administration. I hope the truth comes out for once.

[Hogarth]

6. She's the best ...

... and she never pulls her punches. May she work forever.

[buckeye1]

7. Ari was snaky and smart.

Scott is a contiueis plane crash. It just isn't him. That job needs what he don't have.

Go Helen go! Smack the brat. Lying is a tough job. Scott is lame here.

[david_vincent]

8. "Gutter politics"??

Like what Clinton was subjected to for years?
FOUR investigations into Foster's suicide, and still
these hateful cretins spread their lies.
Richard Mellon Scaife is the granddaddy of gutter politics.
Now they're getting a taste of the same!

[PurityOfEssence]

9. "gutter politics": the essence of monarchic sneering

I just love that term. It just reeks of some privileged prince of great wealth railing at the effrontery of the peasants. The very term "gutter" resonates with pomposity and the commodification and dismissal of those of lower station. What a nasty bunch these grandees are.

[roguevalley]

12. She is just lovely. One night depressed I wrote to her to thank her for

trying so hard to keep journalism from total sleaze. She wrote
back and thanked me and mentioned that this administration likes
war too much.

Lovely lady.

[Hekate]

13. Wow, does the US ever need this grande dame now

Grande dame of the First Amendment. Wish she could live forever, working over successive WH press secretaries with gusto. Who will rise to fill her place when she is gone...

Hekate

[Ganja Ninja]

15. You know your getting close to the truth when a republican cries...

"Gutter Politics!"

[catmandu57]

16. After the release of "records" Friday

There's going to be a ton of questions arise, especially from the gaps. Rosemary can you hear me calling?

[emulatorloo]

17. They can dish it out, but they just can't take it. n/t