Republican Government-Bashers Line Up for Federal Aid

by Helen Thomas

What has happened to those conservative Republican leaders whose mantra was "government is the problem -- not the solution"?

Tell that to the once-bloated financial giants now standing in line for whopping government handouts to the tune of $700 billion. And who can forget those who wanted to "get the government off our backs"? Their silence now is deafening.

In the rush for bailouts for the hard-hit government mortgage finance giants, the U.S. Treasury seized control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and is trying to rescue American International Group, the largest insurer of the world. It allowed 158-year-old Lehman Brothers to collapse, but came to the rescue of the Bear, Stearns, another Wall Street firm.

What about the thousands of suffering homeowners who face mortgage foreclosures? They are at the end of the public trough and almost forgotten in the scramble to protect Wall Street. And what about the failed CEOs who hope to walk out the door with obscene multi-million-dollar golden parachutes and big bonuses?

Isn't there something wrong with this picture?

Both Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke have worked out a plan to pass on the price of the bailouts to the American taxpayer. Congress is still scrutinizing the proposal.

The U.S. financial mess has rippled through other economies of the world. The fault rests with Wall Street greed, which brought on good times for the high rollers, who thought it would never end. And it rests with the federal government for its failure to police mortgage lenders.

Republican lawmakers and presidents who abhor government restrictions and oversight because of their anti-government philosophy have put America in a critical financial state.

We should be looking at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt blueprint. People were in despair after the stock market crashed in 1929 and the Great Depression slowly settled in. They lost hope until FDR took office in 1933 and told Americans in his first inaugural address that we had nothing "to fear but fear itself."

Roosevelt, thinking of the poor and desperate, created several New Deal programs to put people back to work. He was viewed as a savior at the time by millions of Americans, but he also had bitter detractors who resented his radical steps.

I remember the suffering during the Depression in my hometown of Detroit and the long lines of forlorn men, standing in the dead of winter outside the auto factories, hoping for jobs. The popular song on the radio was "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime." The best-selling book was John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath."

Roosevelt was innovative. Some programs worked, some didn't. But many remain today to provide some sense of security, like the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the National Labor Relations Act to protect unions and the Social Security system to help the elderly. In the 1930s, 9,000 banks closed down. Today we have to ask: Why didn't the so-called experts see the storm coming in the 21st century?

Ironically, the remaining affluent and the poor are now on the same page with Abraham Lincoln, who said: "Government should do for people what they cannot do for themselves."

Copyright 2008 Hearst Newspapers
--Helen Thomas

A Rovian political strategy by definition means all slime, all the time. The more crucial Rove game plan is to envelop the entire presidential race in a thick fog of truthiness.

His exhaustively detailed column also laments the cravenness of the media, pointing out that McCain received more scrutiny from the comedian Joy Behar on the feelgood "The View" than in any of his previous interviews. Where is Helen Thomas when we need her? Rich cannot comprehend why McCain's past remains off-limits despite the eerie similarity between the current subprime mortgage crisis and the Savings and Loans debacle of the 80's, a market failure catalyzed by the dissolution of Charles Keating's banks. Rich laudably is not reticent about the details of the McCain's dealings with Keating and the Keating Five scandal. That this is not a more common discourse is unfathomable; how can the media simply ignore a defining moment of McCain's senatorial career given that the crux of his candidacy is his experience in the Senate? Though of course, whenever a reporter musters the courage to question McCain's claims, rather than directly answer the charges, McCain, his cronies or the disinterested Fox News team truculently dismiss the media for its liberal bias.

Rich posits that the mercurial McCain on the campaign trail--the one that has no compunction declaring the economy fundamentally strong and weak on the same day, the one that differs so drastically from the defeated, straight talk McCain of 2000--is reminiscent of the pre-Keating, pre-penitence McCain:

The corporate jets, lobbyists and sleazes that gravitated around McCain in the Keating era have also reappeared in new incarnations. The Nation’s Web site recently unearthed a photo of the resolutely anticelebrity McCain being greeted by the con man Raffaello Follieri and his then girlfriend, the Hollywood actress Anne Hathaway, as McCain celebrated his 70th birthday on Follieri’s rented yacht in Montenegro in August 2006. It’s the perfect bookend to the old pictures of McCain in a funny hat partying with Keating in the Bahamas.

Rich also dutifully directs readers to the stories about Cindy's drug addiction and Palin's cronyism, other among dozens of other related links.

On a weekend when the courts ruled that Cheney must preserve his Vice Presidential documents, Rich assails the McCain's camp's secrecy, from their refusal to release medical and tax records to their unwillingness to address the inconsistencies in his touted, nondescript economic plan that is all promises and no policy. The people running McCain's campaign appreciate that as much as Americans now despise George Bush, the political playbook of Bush's victories will continue to prove efficacious because voters don't care about the details or even the truth:

We want a tough guy who will “fix” things with his own two hands — let’s take out the S.E.C. chairman! — instead of wimpy Frenchified Democrats who just “talk.” The fine print of policy is superfluous if there’s a quick-draw decider in the White House.

God bless America. God help the rest of us.

I’m catching up with Learning Curve on the Ecliptic and I see this weekend that she featured Thomas as the first in a series of “superwomen” that she plans to write about on Saturdays. So, here you go, Gastriques. Here’s everything you wanted to know about Helen Thomas, together with her natal chart.

So, in true Cindy Adams style, I’ll say: Don’t say I never did anything for you! (I know you wouldn’t, but it’s fun to channel Cindy!)

I'm catching up with Learning Curve on the Ecliptic and I see this weekend that she featured Thomas as the first in a series of "superwomen" that she plans to write about on Saturdays. So, here you go, Gastriques. Here's everything you wanted to know about Helen Thomas, together with her natal chart.

So, in true Cindy Adams style, I'll say: Don't say I never did anything for you! (I know you wouldn't, but it's fun to channel Cindy!)

Employees of the Conservative Party of Canada: 9
Conservative Party of Canada cabinet ministers: 2
Attack ads: 5
Journalists: 7

That about says it all. But a couple other points of emphasis.

First, the press gallery doesn't seem interested in playing along. Canwest's David Akin put on his Helen Thomas mask and went after the Conservative environmental plan. Another reporter, from the CBC I believe, asked about the apparent muzzling of Conservative candidates. And this was a day without a major gaffe or controversy for the Conservatives to explain.

Second, the two French ads shown today mocked the Liberal leader as "Professeur Dion." Apparently anti-intellectualism plays well in Quebec. In one, the narrator at one point mocks Dion with what sounds like "coo-coo." Jason Kenney and Lawrence Cannon seemed to find these ads particularly funny.

(Related: Stephen Harper laments negative, personal attacks.)

In a rare Sunday morning press conference at the White House, 2nd term Vice-President George W. Bush chided Congress for stalling the proposed Battle of Endor memorial in Washington. Bush detailed how the ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi spoke to him "all Jedi-like" and asked him to push for an all Ewok Memorial and adjoining ceremonial cemetary. Veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas prodded Bush on his prodding: "Mr. Bush, are we to believe that you want to create a cemetary and memorial for the fictional Battle of Endor when in reality the Ewoks and their associates, the Rebellion, were in fact, derided by your very own government as being a terrorist organization and member of the axis of evil?" Bush (waving finger in jedi mind trick motion): "Yes, you will believe this and you will not impede a memorial to those brave Ewoks who lost their lives at the Battle of Endor." Ms. Thomas: "Alright, but Mr. Bush...you do realize the Battle of Endor actually took place on the 3rd moon of Endor and that Star Wars isn't a historical representation of nonfictional history." Bush: "Um...what...this is getting too convoluted...this press conference is over."

But first, a disclaimer: My political and social views are better explained in this post.  Go have a read if you're curious as to where I stand.

Secondly, I have publicly expressed my support of Barack Obama.  I believe we need true change in this country, and he is the best candidate for the job at this moment in our history.

Even so, I'm pretty disgusted at the blatant show of both sexism and hypocrisy I have been observing from both sides of the political fence when it comes to the treatment of Elizabeth Edwards, Hillary Clinton, and now Sarah Palin.

Let me ask you this:  if Sarah Palin wasn't an attractive woman how would we be treating her differently?  And what is up with all of the commentaries on her hair?

Get over it, folks.  You do not have to look like Helen Thomas to have the intelligence and capability that it takes to be able to run a government.  I can't even begin to express how sick I am of watching this woman being discredited just because she is pretty.  Where are the feminists coming to her defense?  Did I miss the memo saying that you are only worth being valued as an intelligent woman if you don't care about what you look like?  Should we all stop wearing make-up, burn our bras, and have hairy armpits to be validated as women now?

And once again, who of us has a right to question a woman's choice unless we have walked in her shoes?  (Oh, the irony!) How is it that we can judge Ms. Palin for her decision to accept the nomination as the Republican Vice Presidential candidate rather than stay at home with her five children?

It simply is not our place, as we have not been privy to the conversations that have taken place between she and her husband & children on this private family matter.

It seems to me that her job performance as Governor hasn't suffered because she is a working mother.  Come on...this isn't the woman's first rodeo.  She didn't get to this point overnight, folks.  Use your brains and let's debate some real issues.

I wonder if there was this kind of criticism of Joe Biden's parenting ability back when he had to make the difficult decision to proceed with his job as Senator after the tragic loss of his first wife and infant daughter, when he was left as a single father of two seriously injured sons?   He didn't resign to care for them; in fact, he commuted an hour and a half each day in to work.

Of course on the other side of the coin, I find it really unamusing that that one of McCain's campaign spokespersons (Tucker Bounds) is touting the fact that Todd Palin is a “stay-at-home-dad" while one of their most vocal supporters (Rev. John Hagee) has been caught on tape calling men who stay at home while their wives earn the money is in the Lord’s eyes, “a bum” who is “worse than an infidel.” And remember men, “Hell is your future home,” Hagee says.

Nice.

Oh, and about Ms. Palen's 17-year-old pregnant daughter.  We have some folks who are attacking the girl, saying how dare she be so irresponsible to have premarital sex and not use protection.  Well, how do you know they didn't use protection?  Were you in the room?  How do you know they didn't use a condom and it didn't break?  See how ridiculous this rhetoric can become?  The bottom line is that it is none of our business in the first place.

Ah, but let's give equal time to the other side...because I am amazed that the very same people who, if this were a Democratic candidate, would be outraged, but are now suddenly excusing the young woman...all because it serves their purpose.  So, the very ones who were condeming Jamie Lynn Spears for glorifying teen pregnancy are the very ones who wouldn't mind parading Bristol around as a Pro-Life trophy girl.  Not cool, folks.

Here's a novel concept:  How about if we hammer away on Palin, McCain, Biden, and Obama on their ability to lead our nation...you know, on the issues...rather than on if they have good hair, a (gasp!) vagina, if they have too many kids for your taste, or other trivial matters that are wasting precious time.  It is, after all, only 2 months until election day.

Let's make the remaining time count.

Nonetheless, I'm back, provoked into returning by a clip I heard on the NPR show "Fresh Air" a few days. After hearing a plug for their show, during which the guest will be mouthpiece-turned-turncoat Scott McLellan, I felt the need to share this transcript with you. It is from Thursday, October 13, 2005. I like to refer to it as "the day the media realized they were no longer valued by this administration."

Here is the official transcript from that sad day.... a press conference at the White House where Scott McClellan pitched "total victory" in Iraq to the media, and veteran political correspondent Helen Thomas wasn't biting:

HELEN THOMAS: What does the President mean by "total victory" -- that we will never leave Iraq until we have "total victory"? What does that mean?

McCLELLAN: Free and democratic Iraq in the heart of the Middle East, because a free and democratic Iraq in the heart of the Middle East will be a major blow to the ambitions --

THOMAS: If they ask us to leave, then we'll leave?

MR. McCLELLAN: I'm trying to respond. A free and democratic Iraq in the heart of the broader Middle East will be a major blow to the ambitions of al Qaeda and their terrorist associates. They want to establish or impose their rule over the broader Middle East -- we saw that in the Zawahiri letter that was released earlier this week by the intelligence community.

THOMAS: They also know we invaded Iraq.

McCLELLAN: Well, Helen, the President recognizes that we are engaged in a global war on terrorism. And when you're engaged in a war, it's not always pleasant, and it's certainly a last resort. But when you engage in a war, you take the fight to the enemy, you go on the offense. And that's exactly what we are doing. We are fighting them there so that we don't have to fight them here. September 11th taught us --

THOMAS: It has nothing to do with -- Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.

McCLELLAN: Well, you have a very different view of the war on terrorism, and I'm sure you're opposed to the broader war on terrorism. The President recognizes this requires a comprehensive strategy, and that this is a broad war, that it is not a law enforcement matter.

Terry.

TERRY MORAN (ABC News Correspondent): On what basis do you say Helen is opposed to the broader war on terrorism?

McCLELLAN: Well, she certainly expressed her concerns about Afghanistan and Iraq and going into those two countries. I think I can go back and pull up her comments over the course of the past couple of years.

MORAN: And speak for her, which is odd.

McCLELLAN: No, I said she may be, because certainly if you look at her comments over the course of the past couple of years, she's expressed her concerns --

THOMAS: I'm opposed to preemptive war, unprovoked preemptive war.

MR. McCLELLAN: -- she's expressed her concerns.

This is what I think of whenever I hear Scott McClellan's name. Not only did he serve as Bush's mouthpiece for the war before he decided he was against it, but he took the media to task for doing their job... questioning him.

Conservatives whine and moan about a liberal bias in the media. After what went on in that room for eight years, can you honestly blame the media for loathing this administration? And the FOX News "reporters" are worse than NBA referees who throw games to make a buck. No matter what embarrassing gaffe de jour President Bush made or which Republican in Congress sollicited gay sex, it was buried beneathe segments pondering Obama's middle name and Muslim ties or Edwards' lovechild.

I hope that today, with the announcement of Joe Biden, who is known for being forthright yet kind to the media, as Obama's running mate, the media will be assured that if this ticket makes it all the way, their industry will have a chance to do its job again instead of relying on prognostication and sensationalism to woo viewers and readers back.

And on the subject of Helen Thomas, when I sent her an email three years ago in support of her standing up to Scott McClellan and asking the tough questions, she actually wrote me back. I of course will save that email forever.

White House Reporter Helen Thomas Profiled on HBO

by Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES - As a tireless questioner of authority and a consummate Washington insider, pioneering White House correspondent Helen Thomas has covered nine U.S. presidents over a span of nearly a half century.

Next week on cable network HBO, Thomas, 88, makes a rare appearance as an interview subject in a documentary produced and directed by filmmaker Rory Kennedy, whose uncle “Jack” was the first Oval Office occupant Thomas followed as a reporter.

The 38-minute profile, “Thank You, Mr. President: Helen Thomas at the White House,” features the journalist reflecting on her life, career, and devotion to the ideal that democracy thrives best when a vigilant press holds leaders accountable.

“I think that presidents deserve to be questioned, maybe irreverently, most of the time, (to) bring ‘em down a size,” the plain-spoken Thomas says of the particular role of the White House press corps.

On the other hand, she adds, “Access to a president doesn’t mean you’re gonna get the truth.”

It’s a simple but astute observation from a reporter who walked the line between West Wing insider — hobnobbing with presidents, their families and aides — and watchdog.

In one of her more colorful anecdotes, Thomas recounted how she forged ahead in posing a tough question to President Richard Nixon about the Watergate scandal moments after he had publicly congratulated her on being named the first female head of the White House bureau for United Press International.

But Thomas is quick to say that she and her colleagues were not always as alert as they should have been.

FROM CAMELOT TO WATERGATE

She recalls that it was not White House press corps that unearthed the Watergate burglary and cover-up hatched under their noses, but a pair of Washington Post city reporters.

“I think that’s one of her great regrets,” Rory Kennedy said of Thomas and the scandal that led Nixon to resign.

The 39-year-old filmmaker and daughter of the late U.S. Sen. Robert Kennedy, won an Emmy Award last year for her documentary of Iraqi prisoner abuse, “Ghosts of Abu Ghraib.”

Kennedy said one surprise from working with Thomas was her conclusion that a president’s character is more important than policy stances or experience, especially in times of crisis.

The title of the Thomas documentary, which debuts on HBO on August 18, comes from Thomas’ longtime role as dean of the White House press corps in concluding presidential news conferences with the familiar phrase, “Thank you, Mr. President.”

She became both the first woman ever to open a presidential press conference and the first to close one, a privilege she first exercised when John Kennedy was in office.

“I could see President Kennedy was struggling. So, finally, I got up, and said, ‘Thank you, Mr. President.’ … I got him off the hook,” she says in the film.

In another revealing vignette from a president remembered as “the great communicator,” Thomas recounted how Ronald Reagan once claimed he was unable to answer a question by pointing to his grim-faced aides and saying, “They won’t let me,” to which Thomas said she replied, “But you’re the president.”

Born to Syrian immigrants who could neither read nor write, Thomas recalled becoming hooked on journalism upon seeing her first byline in her high school newspaper.

She joined UPI, then United Press, in 1943 at a time when female journalists were treated as second-rate reporters, but by 1960 was covering President-elect Kennedy. Thomas remained at the White House until May 2000 and later became a columnist for Hearst News Service, for whom she covered George W. Bush.

In recent months, Thomas battled a colon infection and was released from a hospital on Wednesday. She expects to continue working from home, according to a statement from Hearst.

© 2008 Reuters

When I bedded down on a green on Winchester Country Club, I expect a certain degree of security. It’s a civilized place, with rules and order; I never considered sprinklers a scheduled part of the order. I was sleeping soundly on comfortable sod of the 10^th hole when the sprinklers kicked on, giving me a shower inside my sleeping bag. I struggled out of the bag, to my feet, scampered across the green onto the fairway, cursing as I drug the sleeping bag behind me.

Soaking wet I found the nearest C-store and got a large cup of coffee. “Localized Thunderstorm,” I told the counter jockey. “Actually, my name’s Robert and I’m running for president, and I’m running the cleanest campaign in history.”

The counter jockey stared at me as if I was a midget Sasquatch and set my change on the counter.

I stepped out into the humid night, chilled from the store’s air conditioner. I found a nearby baseball field and hung my sleeping bag and my soaking clothes on a chain link fence while huddling in the dugout sipping my coffee. The warm humid air and the coffee warmed me quickly. My clothes and sleeping bag would weren’t as lucky.

At dawn, I realized I was naked, sitting in a little league dugout. If someone witnessed me, the situation wouldn’t look good for the campaign. I slinked from the dugout and slipped into my soaking clothes. I cursed Kentucky; my campaign in the state was ineffectual.

I returned to the same C-store, purchased another cup of coffee and tried to start a conversation with the morning counter jockey. “I don’t vote! Not interested! Fuck off!”

“Have a nice day,” I mumbled as I drug my tail out of C-store.

It was time to fold. I was giving up trying in Winchester. I just hope Helen Thomas, the legendary white house reporter, doesn’t learn I gave up on her home town. I found the tracks and headed south. Maybe Richmond would offer me better luck.

KY: I dried out and found myself on a campaign stop at Bottom’s Up on the corner of E. Main, Irvine, and Big Hill Ave. Once I walked inside I could feel my fortunes about to change. The home of Eastern Kentucky U. , Richmond was a college town and loaded with bars. I don’t know if because of my pipe cleaning or the impromptu shower, but my game was on and no topic could better your candidate. Within a few hours, I had reversed my fortunes in the Blue Grass State. I took my campaign up and down Main St. Around 8:00 PM I hitched a ride on a southbound. I kept my eyes open for East Pineville, where I would have to ditch this freight and catch another freight bound for Tennessee.

I jumped from this freight between Pineville, in which the sidewalks already were pulled up, and East Pineville. In the light of the nearly full moon, I followed the right hand switch and began walking through the night towards the Volunteer State. Kentucky wasn’t as rough on me as my recollections. In Retrospect, my route through the state was questionable. As I pulled up for the night in a small clearing near the tracks, I considered my options for another visit.

Helen Thomas gave her views about the men who served in the White House in the film.

On Lyndon B. Johnson: “Johnson was a man who certainly had to talk. He was very garrulous, in a sense, and he also very self-protective. He always would say, ‘Now, you know that’s off the record.’ At the same time, you also knew what he wanted you to write what you were seeing and hearing, but not attribute it to him. So we played the game.”

On Richard Nixon: “Once you lie, your credibility is shot. And, I really think if you lie too many times, then it’s all over. I believe the people have a right to know almost everything.”

On Gerald Ford: “Gerald Ford was gentle, very kind. His great aspiration was to be Speaker of the House. He never really aspired to be President, but lightening struck. He turned out to be a good president because he really restored confidence in the Oval Office and a sense of security in the country after the Watergate scandal.”

On Jimmy Carter: “Jimmy Carter is a very spiritual man. I think he almost missed his calling. He would have been a great minister. I think his greatest contribution to the country is that he made human rights a centerpiece of his foreign policy.”

On Ronald Reagan: “[His advisors] taught him to say, ‘This is not a press conference.’ And, they had him quite trained on that. And, one day, we asked him about what was happening, and he said to us, ‘I can’t answer that.’ We said, ‘Why?’ He said, ‘Because they won’t let me.’ And, he pointed to Baker, Meese, and Deaver, standing behind, very grim. ‘They won’t let me.’ And I said, ‘But, you’re the president!’"

On George H.W. Bush: “I think at the tale end, both he and Mrs. Bush began to really think that we were the cause of all their troubles. So the press was not liked at all.”

On Bill Clinton: “President Clinton didn’t understand that he was being denied his legitimacy as President by the ultra-right in this country, who never gave him one second, one moment where he could prevail. They were after him constantly, investigating him constantly .. I don’t understand how he possibly could’ve taken what he took. He was asked so many personal questions that I’ve never – no president has ever been subjected to that kind of tyranny.”

On George W. Bush: “When George Bush first became president, I think I attended two or three news conferences with him, and then I did get another question in, and there’s a blackout now, I believe, until the end of his term.“

Technorati Tags: HelenThomas, Media, Journalism, Politics, Presidents, WhiteHouse

This week, Helen Thomas is 88 years young!  She's been heckling presidents with the boy's-clubby White House Press Crops since the Kennedy Administration.  During Watergate she got mad scoops from gal-pal Martha Mitchell, then-wife of John Mitchell, Nixon's sleazy Attorney General.

And she's so cute!

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.653208&w=425&h=350&fv=videoId%3D115902]

She's been sidelined with a tummy ache for a few months, but she'll be back.  Get well soon, Helen!

Somehow that thought mixed in my mind with a pet peeve of mine regarding expressions of patriotism: the focus on opportunity. As in, “I love my country because of the opportunities I have had” or “Only in America could someone who started at x end up at y.” But I'll get back to that.

So, ok... change.

We (and I don't quite know if by “we” I mean Americans or humans) embrace the things we think we can count on to last, and never get over it when they don't. I live in a city still bitter by the loss of the Colts almost a quarter century ago. One of the promotions last month at Camden Yards was an Orioles T-shirt with the number 34 on the back just below the name Hagy. The most loved athlete in the city's history is a guy known less for performance than he is for simply being there every game, every season for about 20% of a person's average life expectancy. People here mourn when restaurants close. And that's easy for anyone to relate to: we deal in everyday life with death, divorce, career-hopping and geographic transience. There's a national ethic of upward mobility, damn the roots you leave behind. Even if you don't want that life - it happens. In the last five years, I've moved five times, lived in five different states, and worked in four different organizations. So at least as much as anyone else, I hold onto the things that seem familiar, and I strive to be wonderfully predictable in the name of stability.

Maybe that's one thing I don't like about the American West. They don't seem to care if they put themselves in a larger context. The uninterrupted miles of desert and the shear starkness of the landscape appeals to people who seek new beginnings, seek... something. That's how it was when I lived in Albuquerque. My friend used to tell me how much he loved driving halfway up the Sandias and looking down at the city below; he claimed it gave him perspective. I hated it. Beyond the scattered (and sprawling) lights of the city was nothingness. That isn't comfort, it's isolation. It's a complete removal of the individual from the community - or even the context of time and place. What was it the old quote? “Go West, young man, and grow up with the country?” Horace Greeley, I believe. Problem is that the people who followed the command didn't “grow up” with the country, but continued to seek newness, and in my mind, rootlessness.

I don't mean that to suggest that I am incapable of appreciating change. I'm like anyone else – completely suscesptible to hope and hype and vision and promise. I can be inspired, and I am inspired. You have to try pretty hard to not be moved by Barack Obama, his supporters, the crowd of 200,000 he drew in Berlin this week. I don't know if I feel that “thrill going up my leg,” but I'm not so cynical as to want to step on that enthusiasm either. But that really isn't the way to win me over. Yeah, you can get me on your side, but that's fleeting. You wanna mark an era, it's going to take more than that. It's going to take stickability.

There are already too many pioneers in this country - people who place their wages on something new that may mark the future. They buy stock in a trend; in a political party or candidate; in a brand. Me? I'm contented being a part of a much larger and longer story, even if I don't have a starring role, even if I can't claim prescience for its success. More than contentedness for my role in the story, I appreciate the importance of the others who played a role - who stuck around an old game for so long that almost through osmosis they changed the rules. It ain't all that glamorous but hey, it's honest and respectable.

We (and I think this time I definitely mean humans) live with competing needs for progress and continuity. Yes, we embrace change, but we also want to believe that some things never change and that the links between past and present will be seamless, ushered in by the same familiar faces. Most people pick a point on the sliding scale and define themselves in that way - adventure seekers or homebodies; radicals or traditionalists or more likely somewhere in the middle of each.

I was talking with my mother the other night about one of her favorite people: Helen Thomas. Helen has been out of the White House press room for the past couple of months – sidelined by an unspecified stomach ailment. It's hard to imagine the White House press corps without Helen Thomas; she's been there since 1961 (is she the longest serving White House correspondent in the history of the Republic?) Anyway, in two weeks she turns 88 years old, and this is key: she is expected to recover from her illness and return to work. Right... because, what else would she do? She's a permanent fixture in the White House briefing room. There are just some people without whom it is impossible to imagine the American Universe.

I write a lot about William Jennings Bryan, and for the most part that's political: I think the Democratic Party needs to embrace Bryan's unabashed populist message. But a small part of my appreciation of Bryan is just that he was always there. He was a public figure for an entire era, and when he died suddenly only days after prosecuting the Scopes Monkey Trial, his contemporaries found it almost inconceivable that politics and American life would go on without him. History tends to rightfully leave out the one-hit wonders of our national consciousness.

And that somehow brings me back to that pet peeve; love of country = opportunities afforded by said country. Call them the Opportunity Patriots. To my mind, that's a pretty shallow and egotistical view of patriotism. I don't know that I can pinpoint specific, personal opportunities I have received by virtue of being an American. But I am able to claim some measure of ownership of all those things that are so iconic in this country: a little Dewey Defeats Truman mixed in with Rosa Parks sitting on a bus; FDR pledging Freedom from Want; Adlai Stevenson not waiting for the translation; Chevy Chase's "Live From New York," Elvis on Ed Sullivan, a bit of “Heeeere's Johnny!;” the numbers on the warehouse unfurling 2131. All of those people and events belong to my country, and in that context it's humbling just to be along for the ride.

Benefit of the doubt time.

I think most of the people praying for, working for, and screaming for change in this country do mean it in the public policy sphere. There's a lot of “the country should live up to its ideals” theorists, and though that may be empty rhetoric, and the “ideals” are almost always extensions of the speakers' ideology, at least it acknowledges that there are in fact, American ideals, and that we are something more than just a geographic spot on the planet. Most of the people who demand change are simply tired of waiting for the next link on that chain of iconic Americans.

For those people (and I'd probably include myself in this group), they may be in luck. If you squint a little and engage in a bit of mental time travel ahead 50 years, it's easy to picture watching nostalgic old clips of Obama's convention or inauguration speech; or reflect on a major initiative of the Obama Administration, something equivalent to the G.I. Bill. I think that's what most people mean when they talk about change... passing that torch to a new generation – which is of course, in itself an Old American Tradition.

So, those people I can understand. But, some people bypass change and aim for revolution. I guess they feel that change is too slow, or that the change moves in the wrong direction. Almost certainly they view revolution as an American tradition in itself. But revolution is much more common in other countries than it is in ours, so excepting our founding, I don't know that it really is much of an American Tradition. What I don't get about the revolutionaries (of any ideology) is that they seem to take such joy in the act of rebellion that they don't want to build something that lasts. Simple longevity becomes evidence of an emerging establishment that needs to be toppled.

And that I don't understand. All of the great American rebellions have definable resolutions: Striking workers return to their jobs after negotiating for higher wages and better working conditions; African Americans got back on Montgomery buses when the Supreme Court affirmed their right to choose their seat. To the activists who led these movements, change was achievable.

Not to sound all First Year PoliSci, but today's revolutionaries seem to follow more of the Hegelian (or Marxist) dialectic of change: thesis, antithesis, synthesis – the outcome of every struggle serving only as the stage for the next. No desire to play a role in that larger story, no appreciation for Things That Have Been. The only celebrations of the country's history are celebrations of past struggles: a history of protests/uprisings/marches/revolutions. Kinda overlooks the Dewey Defeats Truman/Freedom From Want/”Don't Wait For The Translation” side of American history. And in that way, they're not much different than the Opportunity Patriots.

So I don't know... as I said at the top, this is a change year. And that's fine, that's good. But when the subject of America comes up, so many people spend their energy thinking only of the opportunities provided or ideals unrealized. And yeah, we need to do a lot of things better... and there are probably a fair number of things that we couldn't do much worse. But it's also nice to stand still for a minute and recognize not only what we have, but what we have had - and most importantly the very few things that fit into both categories.

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5693888495743569474&hl=en]

In this installment of Big News:

- Scott McClellan finds out it's hard for him to say "I'm sorry!"
- Hillary Clinton brings families together!
- NASA struggles out how to unclog a toilet!
- Carrie, Charlotte and Samantha find a replacement for Miranda!
- Two New Zealanders find out who their real co-pilot is!
- Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa rings in gay marriage - passionately!
- John McCain has some straight talk on hecklers!
- Wild weather gives two Midwesterners artistic inspiration!
- And Amy Winehouse records the new James Bond Theme, "Quantum of Solace!"

BIG NEWS EPISODE 278 -"Hail, South Dakota!"

Starring Christopher Biewer, Kipleigh Brown, Sean Cowhig, Susan Deming, Neil Garguilo, Jason Kelley, Gregg Lopez, Matt Moore, Melissa Okey, Artemis Pebdani and Phillip Wilburn

Special Guest: John Fugelsang

Directed by Michael Hughes

1. SCOTTY APOLOGIZES by Adam Fisher and Danny Ricker
Dana Perino (Susan), George Bush (Phillip), Scott McClellan (Gregg), Reporter #1 (Christopher), Reporter #2 (Sean), Reporter #3 (Jason), Reporter #4 (Melissa), Reporter #5 (Neil), Helen (Artemis)

2. WE CAN ALL AGREE by Gregg Lopez
Mara (Kipleigh), Deanna (Melissa), Hillary (Susan)

3. 2008: A POOP ODYSSEY by Tom Repetto and Rick Paulas
Oleg (Neil), Sergei (Sean), Garrett (Jason), Dave (Matt), Hal (Gregg)

4. SEX AND THE HILLARY by Michael Hughes
Carrie (Artemis), Charlotte (Kipleigh), Samantha (Melissa), Hillary (Susan), Bill (Phillip), Waiter (Christopher)

5. CO-PILOT SEASON by Matt Mondlock
Grant (Matt), Owen (Sean), God (Jason)

6. EL ALCALDE DE LA PASIÓN by Scott Garner
Aide (Christopher), Villaraigosa (Neil), Susie (Artemis), Announcer (Jason)

7. STRAIGHT TALK ON HECKLERS by Tom Repetto
McCain (Phillip), Chaz (Matt)

8. FARGONE by Jason McClain
Marge (Kipleigh), Norm (Christopher)

9. QUANTUM OF BOLLOX by Julia Gaudette
Jim (Gregg), Terry (Sean), Amy (Artemis), Sean (Phillip)

10. SPECIAL GUEST: John Fugelsang
Intro (Gregg)

11. BIG NEWS REPORT by Burkhart, Demski, Garguilo, Gilly, Glassberg, Kalkin, King, Hughes, Judy, Lopez, Manikatos, Manser, McClain, Mondlock, Morelli, Nordvall, Paulas, Philips, Reber, Repetto, ten Bosch, Terris-Feldman, and Weitz
Melissa/Matt/Artemis/Gregg et al.

A sampling of Obama's views on the role of religion in American politics.

A sampling of McCain's views on the role of religion in American politics.

Any questions?

"Washington, D.C. legend Helen Thomas has been off the job for the past three weeks suffering from a gastric infection that has caused her to miss her weekly column for Hearst Newspapers, according to Hearst D.C. Bureau Chief Chuck Lewis." [E&P]

Oooh! An octogenarian "gastric infection!" Just in time for the lunch hour! You can thank me later. (Um. Ew, gross, Helen Thomas' rattley insides, ew, ew, retch.)

If this president had been given a truth serum and you had one chance to ask him any question in a broadcast press conference what would it be?

For me I could ask ""Mr. President, everyone recognizes that the "War on Terror" is complete bullshit, so please give me and the American people the real reasons why you have destroyed habeas corpus, destroyed the freedom of speech, destroyed the separation of church and state, needlessly destroyed the lives of thousands of US soldiers and hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis (and their families), destroyed this country's international standing by going to was with a country that did nothing to us and by sanctioning torture and extraordinary rendition, and why have you completely destroyed the founding father's separation of powers by creating the concept of the unitary executive?"

Of course the shorter version is "Mr. President, why do you hate America so much?"

I might have have a few other ideas, but what would you ask him?

This primary season has demonstrated how the modern media is fueled by corporate interest. They have "cherry picked" issues they know will provide the most boom for their bottom line at the time.

In other words, you get "news" that is less about informing you of what's going on, but more about what will be the news piece that will get you to watch that day; that gets them higher  for that period; which allows the news company to charge advertisers more; which causes their revenue to increase; which makes their shareholders happy; which raises the parent companies stock price; which allows the board of directors of the parent company to make more money with large salaries in the tens of millions.

I now rely on the tag surfer to get a synopsis of my news so that I may form my own opinion of what's relevant and what's not. Though some of you are paid by either the Obama/Clinton/MCain/News Corp people to pose as general public bloggers, I'm still able to dissiminate the news with my own will.

Not George Will.

People such as

If