Crazy aunt Helen gets Snowed under!
BY JAMES TARANTO
Best of the Web Today
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Tony Snow is looking like an inspired choice for White House press secretary. His first televised briefing, yesterday, drew rave reviews from Variety:
<<< Snow's experience with GOP politics, TV cameras and live auds [audiences] (in previous roles he worked for Fox News as well as George H.W. Bush) was abundantly on display the moment he stepped to the briefing podium, looked down at notes, then glanced up and, with mock surprise at the packed room, quipped, "I feel so loved!" . . .
After less than two minutes, he courteously tossed to the press corps--often compared to a hungry animal--the large remaining bone of briefing time.
Reporters tried gnawing for details about the National Security Agency's tracking of phone calls. Affable, low-key, Snow generally repeated only what Bush has already said--that no laws have been broken, yadda yadda.
Unlike his predecessor, Scott McClellan, who developed a rep as a brusque stonewaller, Snow, his hands casually holding the podium sides, generally engaged questioners with eye contact and a seeming desire to answer. Cordiality was the defining characteristic, even when rebuffing a premise disguised as a question (a common reportorial tactic). >>>
Not always disguised as a question, of course. Snow's exchange with Helen Thomas, American journalism's crazy old aunt in the attic, was priceless.
Video is here
hotair.com
And here's the transcript:
<<< Thomas: The president today denied he'd ever broken the law in terms of wiretaps. He also indicated that anything that was looked into, any calls, had some sort of foreign aspect either to or from. And he has said he's always obeyed the law. Are all of these stories untrue that we've been reading for the last several days that millions of Americans have been wiretapped?
Snow: Well, let's--
Thomas: Are the phone calls turned over to the government?
Snow: Okay, let's try to segregate the stories here. What he's said about the terror surveillance program is that these are foreign-to-domestic calls and they were all done within the parameters of the law. He has not commented on the--
Thomas: He, himself, has said he didn't obey that law.
Snow: No, he didn't. What he said is that he has done everything within the confines of the law. The second thing is, you're mentioning a USA Today story about which this administration has no comment. But I would direct you back to the USA Today story itself, and if you analyze what that story said, what did it say? It said there is no wiretapping of individual calls, there is no personal information that is being relayed. There is no name, there is no address, there is no consequence of the calls, there's no description of who the party on the other end is.
Thomas: Privacy was breached by turning over their phone numbers.
Snow: Well, again, you are jumping to conclusions about a program, the existence of which we will neither confirm, nor deny.
Thomas: Why? Don't you think the American people have a right to know--
Snow: Because--what's interesting is, there seems to be a notion that because the president has talked a little bit about one surveillance program and one matter of intelligence gathering, that somehow we have to tell the entire world we have to make intelligence gathering transparent. Let me remind you, it's a war on terror, and there are people--I guarantee you, al Qaeda does not believe--
Thomas: He doesn't have a right to break the law, does he?
Snow: No, the president is not talking about breaking the law. But al Qaeda doesn't believe in transparency. What al Qaeda believes in is mayhem, and the president has a constitutional obligation and a heartfelt determination to make sure we fight it. >>>
All you have to do to win an argument with Helen Thomas is let her gibber; she discredits herself with her outlandish and tendentious statements. It's to Snow's credit that he's not satisfied outwitting her by default but instead used her embarrassing performance to make a serious and substantive point. This is what we need more of from the White House.
opinionjournal.com
whitehouse.gov
variety.com |
