Another priceless Helen Thomas moment

[yankeedem]

Some baldheaded tool (talonnews?) got up in the McClellan White House press conference and asked a question, and Helen stopped him in his partisan tracks. Our "liberal media" at work!

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/07/20040715-7.html
Q Last Friday, the Senate Intelligence Committee released a report that shows that Ambassador Joe Wilson lied when he said his wife didn't put him up for the mission to Niger. The British inquiry into their own prewar intelligence yesterday concluded that the President's 16 words were "well-founded." Doesn't Joe Wilson owe the President and America an apology for his deception and his own intelligence failure?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, one, let me point out that I think those reports speak for themselves on that issue. And I think if you have questions about that, you can direct that to Mr. Wilson.

Q Well, we spent so many weeks here dissecting the 16 words that are now absolutely true. Don't you think --

HELEN: How do you know that?

Q Excuse me, Helen. Don't you think that America deserves the opportunity to have this information brought forward, as well?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I noticed the media reports on this very issue over the weekend.

Q There were very few of them.

MR. McCLELLAN: And I certainly recognize that it was getting a lot of attention previously. But I think the reports speak for themselves on it.

[displacedtexan]

1. Scotty never does answer Helen's question!

MR. McCLELLAN: The Taiwan Relations Act, as well, and we've -- our views remain the same on this very issue.

Go ahead. Oh, I'm sorry, Helen. Go ahead.

Q Does the President -- does the United States harbor or hold secret detainees who are not available to the International Red Cross?

MR. McCLELLAN: Actually, this is an issue that came up earlier in the week and I talked about it at that point. When it comes to the International Committee for the Red Cross, we work very closely with them on detainee issues, and we --

Q I have a follow-up.

MR. McCLELLAN: Okay -- we stay in close and regular contact with the Red Cross on all the issues related to detainees. And they do, from time to time, raise issues and we work to address those issues directly --

Q Why don't you answer the question? Do we have secret detainees and is it possible that they could be subjected to the same treatment as in Baghdad prisons?

MR. McCLELLAN: We work to address these issues that the Red Cross raises directly with the Red Cross. And any issues that they have, we respond directly to the --

Q That's not the answer to the question.

MR. McCLELLAN: -- Red Cross. We meet with them on a regular basis at a variety of levels, and we stay in close and constant contact with them. And I really don't have anything else to add to this issue.

Q You don't know whether we have secret detainees --

MR. McCLELLAN: Like I said, Helen, I don't have anything else to add to this issue.

Q Why?

MR. McCLELLAN: Go ahead.

Q Scott, I have two questions. The President's critics and John Kerry really leaned on Joe Wilson's contentions to say that the President lied getting us into war, and that he wasn't going to reconstitute his nuclear program. This certainly pointed to Dick Cheney's appearance on Meet The Press where he made that contention -- they would point to Joe Wilson and say, that's nonsense. Are you saying that the President doesn't at all feel vindicated by the CIA report and the Butler report in Britain that --