Helen Thomas: Ex-Treasury Chief O'Neill Rejects Price Of Loyalty

Hearst Newspapers ^ | January 14, 2004 | Helen Thomas

[gov_bean_ counter]

There is a fine line between "shallow" and "just plain stupid". Helen crossed over that line a long time ago. Problem is she is too far over the line to know it.

[Bikers4Bush]

Another helen thomas dirty diaper alert.

[Jeff Gannon]

A hateful woman. I work with her most every day.

[kevao]

Wow, what a slanted article! The best:

but he [Rumsfeld] denied warning him not to write it.

Brilliantly subtle, leaving the reader with the false impression that O'Neil was indeed "warned" not to write it.

[Hand em their arse]

I thought cabbage patch dolls were just supposed to sit there and look silly.

[Mr. Bird]

Sam Donaldson, hardly a Republican apologist, has the right read on the O'Neill saga. Last night he provided commentary along these lines: O'Neill is a bitter old man, and quite possibly a fool. Just as Truman threatened to punch a critic in the nose, Bush would have been justified in threatening the same.

I was actually quite pleased with Sam's comments.

[Howlin]

Is it just me, or have you, too, noticed that all of the media is ignorning O'Neill's backpedaling?

[Thebaddog]

If you think about how Oneill was talking about how Bush was disengaged in meetings, it's really in the point of view of the author. Bush probably was disengaged to him while he was otherwise engaged with people who knew how to get things done right. It's kind of like the blind men describing an elephant after touching it. Wait a minute, that elephant is Helen. Never mind.

[Petronski]

"I can't imagine I would be attacked for telling the truth."

Parsing this in a Clintonian manner reveals some very interesting results. He's speaking in a purely prospective tense: "I can't imagine I would be attacked..."

First, if he had intended to say he told the truth and was now being attacked for it, he would use the past tense "I never imagined I would be attacked for telling the truth..." He thus isn't even claiming he was or is currently being attacked for telling the truth.

More importantly, his statement is purely hypothetical. Nowhere in this sentence does he claim he told the truth, that would sound more like "I told the truth and they attacked me for it."

Fascinating.

[over3Owithabrain]

Not just you - O'Neill has backed up on almost everything - but the press just keeps going with his original treachery. Of course, they do that with any issue they think can damage Bush - highlight the "bad" stuff and ignore the good. O'Neill's fault though, he opened up this can of worms and any attempts by him to put them back is disingenuous and futile. He's scum.

[over3Owithabrain]

God help you. I'll remember that next time I want to complain about my co-workers.

[steve-b]

"I can't imagine I would be attacked for telling the truth."

This from a grown adult? Does he also find it difficult to imaging that there really is no Santa Claus?

[Marysecretary]

Brit Hume mentioned that last night. He said that (CBS?) had certainly touted O'Neill often enough in their news reports but not one word when O'Neill backpeddled. Hmm. Nothing like a good healthy bias, huh?

[Hand em their arse]

Sorry it took me a minute to post back but I fell out of my chair when I saw that pic. I hate to ask where you got them, did you two "date" or something (he,he)

[harpu]

"A hateful woman. I work with her most every day."

On behalf of many of us, please accept our sincerest condolences.

[Howlin]

I am in a state of high anxiety all the time now; I guess I'm so jaded that I notice every single one of this little ommissions now and it keeps me constantly in turmoil.

I've already started mumbling to myself and we haven't even gotten to the conventions yet. *Sigh*