Helen Thomas

Admiration for a great journalist from Liberal Street Fighter

She is one of my few heroes in the media. Always willing to ask the powerful the hard questions, something that sadly so many other “journalists” refuse to do, fearful of losing out on their precious access. Her latest:

When are the Democrats going to get their act together?

Surely, they are not going to let President Bush’s political guru, Karl Rove, snooker them in the mid-term November election campaign as he did in the past two presidential elections.

What is he going to pull out of the hat? Soft on terrorism? Gay marriage? Flag burning? 9/11?

Are the Democrats going to be such easy prey again, neutralized by phony wedge issues and neglectful of the real issue, which is the administration’s flagrant use of falsehoods to justify a war of choice?

It could happen again. The leaderless Democrats, speaking in a cacophony, are being outgunned by the conservatives and members of their own party representing the Democratic Leadership Council who are at heart “Republican lite.”

There IS no Democratic Party. It is not a functioning political party. It is, at best, a brand name used to scoop up money from people who remember when it USED to be a functioning party. It’s as though Coke stopped making drinks and just sold t-shirts with their old logo on them.  Yes, there are a few politicians actually trying to do their job while wearing the label “Democrat”, but they are outnumbered by the hacks, sellouts and cowards.
After she gives Murtha some praise for standing up to Rove and the Republicans (with little or no help from his “fellow” Democrats), Thomas continues:

[…] Rove attacked Democrats for what he called “that party’s old pattern of cutting and running.”

Rove — who prides himself on being a history buff — obviously did not remember when President Ford ordered U.S. troops out of Vietnam in April 1975. They departed — some clinging by their fingertips to helicopters — as North Vietnamese forces advanced on Saigon.

At that time Ford said at Tulane University: “We, of course, are saddened indeed by the events in Indochina.

“But these events, tragic as they are, portend neither the end of the world nor of America’s leadership in the world.”

Summing up, he added: “The fate of responsible men and women everywhere, (meaning the South Vietnamese) rests in their own hands, not in ours.”

Amen.

Wow, history, imagine that … too bad the Vichy Dems are too busy lunching with their clueless consultants and worrying about how much Chris Matthews might make fun of them.

Thomas continues with a long, and pretty obvious, list of things the Democrats could attack on, a list that will likely go unheeded. She concludes with:

As Bush prepared to visit Europe this week, Die Zeit, a German weekly, declared that Americans have “lost their moral credibility in Iraq.”

The newspaper also said “America’s entire Iraq policy is out of control.”

That’s what the Democrats should be saying.

Go read the rest, and when you’re done go check out how she hounded Tony Snow during the last press gaggle.

Helen Thomas is a national treasure.