[Futurework] "Worst President Ever"

[Ray Evans Harrell]

Subject: interview with helen thomas > > > Doubting Thomas offers her press veteran's take on state of presidency > > By: John Bogert > > As veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas signed my program Thursday > evening at the Society of Professional Journalists' annual awards banquet, I > said, "First time I ever asked a reporter for an autograph." > > "Thank you, dear," she said, patting my arm. "Don't lose heart." > > Those are words that should be engraved at the bottom of every journalism > degree. That's because I'm not sure that any business can cause a heart to > be lost or broken faster than this. And Thomas probably knows this better > than anyone because she began reporting in 1943. > > Thomas, in case you've never seen a presidential news conference, is the > woman who has haunted every U.S. president since JFK. > > I can't, in fact, recall a news conference where she wasn't standing > hawk-like, grilling men who clearly didn't want to begrilled by anyone, > especially a woman. > > Thomas, by the way, is the woman who said, "Thank you, Mr. President," at > the end of her very first press conference in 1961. > > That, I think, is a wonderful tradition that continues to this very day. It > shows a little respect to make up for the kind of lack of respect we used to > hear from shouters such as Sam Donaldson, the man Ronald Reagan could never > quite hear. > > I attended this Biltmore Hotel banquet for two reasons - Thomas and Jean > Adelsman. Jean is the retired managing editor of the Breeze and the > recipient Thursday evening of a Journalist of the Year award, along with > Judy Muller of ABC News, Kitty Felde of KPCC's "Talk of the City," Sue > Manning of The Associated Press and USC law professor Erwin Chemerinsky. > > Odd how the world breathlessly awaits the Golden Globes while honors > presented the people who watch the politicians or work for a cancer cure are > as obscure as lice. In fact, there's a joke about the Golden Globes and the > foreign press that presents them. It's said that on ceremony night you can't > find a waiter anywhere in town. Take this from someone who once sat at > another banquet with the foreign press - a group composed of a dry cleaner > from Pacoima, a large Eastern European woman in a turban and an Egyptian > shoe salesman who spent the evening trying to cadge free drinks. Now that I > think of it, they aren't much different from domestic journalists. > > Except when it comes to Thomas, who - to the 100 or so people in that room - > is the very essence of celebrity, a woman who dedicated 60 years at United > Press International and Hearst to afflicting the elected. > > Keep in mind that Thomas came up in the bad old days. Unlike Thursday night, > when four of five honorees were women, she spent decades proving herself to > the male hierarchy. > > As late as 1972 she was the only woman on the Nixon China trip. Still, she > survives in a Washington press corps that she says has gone soft, accepting > presidential spin without question. > > There was a lot of that in her speech, this talk of devaluation in the > character of leadership. Not surprisingly for an admitted liberal, she held > her greatest praise for John Kennedy, the only president in her estimation > who made Americans look to their higher angels. > > Then came Johnson's Great Society and Vietnam. Nixon, she said, was a man > who would - when presented two roads - "always choose the wrong one." He was > followed by "healing" Ford, well-meaning Carter, Reagan's revolution, Bush > Sr.'s self-destruction and Clinton's damaging of the presidential myth. > > She seemed to have sympathy and affection for everyone but George W. Bush, a > man who she said is rising on a wave of 9-11 fear - fear of looking > unpatriotic, fear of asking questions, just fear. "We have," she said, "lost > our way." > > Thomas believes we have chosen to promote democracy with bombs instead of > largess while Congress "defaults," Democrats cower and a president controls > all three branches of government in the name of corporations and the > religious right. > > As she signed my program, I joked, "You sound worried." > > "This is the worst president ever," she said. "He is the worst president in > all of American history." > > The woman who has known eight of them wasn't joking. > > Publish Date:January 19, 2003