Helen Thomas Browbeats Bush Into Tearful Confession

At a press conference earlier today, President Bush called upon the grande dame of the White House press corps — Helen Thomas — for the first time in three years. He tried to butter up Thomas, one of his most vociferous critics, by complimenting her performance at the Gridiron Dinner.

But Thomas didn’t take the bait. Instead, she asked him this speech-cum-question, in a fairly hostile and aggressive manner:

I’d like to ask you, Mr. President — your decision to invade Iraq has caused the deaths of thousands of Americans and Iraqis, wounds of Americans and Iraqis for a lifetime. Every reason given, publicly at least, has turned out not to be true. My question is: Why did you really want to go to war? From the moment you stepped into the White House, your Cabinet officers, former Cabinet officers, intelligence people and so forth — but what’s your real reason? You have said it wasn’t oil, the quest for oil. It hasn’t been Israel or anything else. What was it?

Those of you who have seen the clip, which was endlessly replayed on the news networks today, will recall the j’accuse manner in which Thomas posed her query. It was all very “gotcha!” of her.

Our question: What was Thomas expecting Bush to do? Break down at the podium, start sobbing uncontrollably, and cry out, “Oh, I did it to enrich Halliburton, that why! And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for you meddling journalists!”

President Bush Calls the Democrats Out to Play [RedState]
President Finally Calls on Helen Thomas, Says He Only Semi-Regrets It [E&P]

READ MORE: Media, Personalities, White House, bush, george w. bush, halliburton, helen thomas