THOMAS: You asked President Clinton why he wouldn't resign.
BLITZER: I asked him some tough questions. But that's another time and this is another story.
Helen Thomas joined Wolf Tuesday on The Situation Room, after getting off a question to Bush earlier in the day. Thomas had been a lone voice in the White House Press briefings that actually questioned this administration. The new theme that some right wingers are pushing is to portray that the media is so terribly mean and hostile to Bush-don't you feel sorry for him? Helen reminded Wolf about his own behavior with Bill Clinton. Something about asking tough questions.
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Download Helen stated the obvious yesterday about Bush's foreign policy agenda that most reporters won't even touch on.
THOMAS: It doesn't- it doesn't parse. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, it certainly had -- was secular, it was not tied to al Qaeda.
I think he wanted to go into Iraq because he had all the neo- conservatives advising at the top of their agenda for Project for a New American Century. First Iraq, then Iran -- then Syria, then Iran, and so forth.
BLITZER: So you believe even before 9/11, he was about -- he wanted to take out Saddam Hussein?
THOMAS: Oh, I think this is very clear. You couldn't sit in that press room day after day. Every time -- every time it was mentioned by Ari Fleischer or Scott, they would say in one breath, 9/11, Saddam Hussein, 9/11, Saddam Hussein.
(The fun part came when Helen turned the tables on Blitzer and asked him how he had questioned Bill Clinton in the past.)
BLITZER: Tell our viewers what you are up to nowadays. How you feel and what your goals are right now?
THOMAS: My goals are to seek the truth wherever it leads me. And I do think that's the goal of journalists. And I think we fell down on the job.
BLITZER: The news media in general? That we weren't -- what?
THOMAS: Come back. All is forgiven.
BLITZER: You are going to forgive us? You are part of the news media too.
THOMAS: Right.
BLITZER: We sat in those briefings for a long time together.
THOMAS: You ask very tough questions.
BLITZER: I'm trying to did the best I can, like you.
THOMAS: You asked President Clinton why he wouldn't resign.
BLITZER: I asked him some tough questions. But that's another time and this is another story.
