Thank God for Helen Thomas

In today's column, carried by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, shrivelled octogenarian Helen Thomas, the doyenne of the White House press corps, gives some parting criticism to Ari Fleischer

But great press secretaries also wear another hat, which requires them to challenge White House insiders to provide more information for the public ... For example, for credibility's sake, he could have urged the president not to link the war on terrorism with the war against Saddam Hussein. There was enough horror about the now-deposed Iraqi leader to discredit him in the eyes of the world without the administration's strained efforts to tie him to terrorism.

Thank God for Helen Thomas, without whose insights, carefully honed over six decades as a professional journalist, we would all be lost in a fog of credulous ignorance. Without Helen Thomas, some of us might even buy into silly canards, like a link between Saddam Hussein and terrorists. Imagine that, Saddam Hussein and terrorists. Who would be gullible enough to believe such a thing? Saddam Hussein had no conceivable ties to terrorists. It can't be true -- Helen Thomas said so and the Seattle P-I printed it.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at May 23, 2003 04:18 PM