Helen Thomas: Still Crazy After All These Years – Part 2
Thursday, May 26th, 2005It seems that Helen Thomas is off of her medications again:
Wire Queen Helen Thomas today ripped into White House spokesman Scott McClellan over his claims the United States is in Afghanistan and Iraq — by invitation.
Joined in progress…
Q The other day — in fact, this week, you said that we, the United States, is in Afghanistan and Iraq by invitation. Would you like to correct that incredible distortion of American history –
MR. McCLELLAN: No, we are — that’s where we currently –
Q — in view of your credibility is already mired? How can you say that?
MR. McCLELLAN: Helen, I think everyone in this room knows that you’re taking that comment out of context. There are two democratically-elected governments in Iraq and –
Q Were we invited into Iraq?
MR. McCLELLAN: There are two democratically-elected governments now in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we are there at their invitation. They are sovereign governments, and we are there today –
Q You mean if they had asked us out, that we would have left?
MR. McCLELLAN: No, Helen, I’m talking about today. We are there at their invitation. They are sovereign governments –
Q I’m talking about today, too.
MR. McCLELLAN: — and we are doing all we can to train and equip their security forces so that they can provide for their own security as they move forward on a free and democratic future.
Q Did we invade those countries?
MR. McCLELLAN: Go ahead, Steve.
After all of these years, I wonder why McClellan still calls on her to take her questions. Most of the questions she has asked in recent months have been nothing but her personal opinions couched as policy questions. Now personal opinions are fine, but you shouldn’t disguise them as questions in a White House briefing.
As to the actual content of her question, it is obvious to all but the most obtuse that when the Administration says that we are currently in Afghanistan and Iraq by invitation, they mean that the current legitimate government in power has extended the invitation, not the previous theocracy or dictatorship. Her characterization of the statement being “that incredible distortion of American history” is disingenuous.
Then, not satisfied with her semantic arguments, she takes a personal swipe at McClellan by saying “in view of your credibility is already mired? How can you say that?” Scot McClellan’s credibility is far from “mired.” In fact, the only person whose credibility is in question these days is Helen Thomas. She long ago left the “objective journalist” train and joined the tin-foil hat brigade.
I have reproduced the entire Drudge posting here, as it is a “flash” item on his site and those items tend to disappear quickly with no permalink. No copyright infringement is intended.
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