Helen Thomas: "You know what happened to Nixon when he broke the law. "

[sabra]

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/02/20060206-3.html

Press Briefing by Scott McClellan
James S. Brady Briefing Room

<snip>

Q Does the President think he should obey the law? He put his hand on the Bible twice to uphold the Constitution. Wiretapping is not legal under the circumstances without a warrant.

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I guess you didn't pay attention to the Attorney General's hearing earlier today, because he walked through very clearly the rationale behind this program. And, Helen, I think you have to ask are we a nation at war --

Q There is no rationale to disobey the law.

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, he's not -- are we a nation at war?

Q That's not the question.

MR. McCLELLAN: No, that is the issue here.

Q No, the question is, the point is there are means for him to go to war, get a warrant to spy on people.

MR. McCLELLAN: Enemy surveillance is critical to waging and winning war. It's one of the traditional tools of war.

Q Nobody says he doesn't have running room to --

MR. McCLELLAN: And the Attorney General outlined very clearly today how previous administrations have used the same authority and cited the same --

Q That doesn't make it legal.

MR. McCLELLAN: -- and cited the very same authority.

Q If they broke the law, that's too bad. You know what happened to Nixon when he broke the law.

MR. McCLELLAN: And we're going to continue doing everything we can within our power to protect the American people. This is a very different circumstance, and you know that.

Q No, I don't.

Q Two questions. One, --

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, then you should go back and listen to what the Attorney General said, because he laid out the safeguards that are in place, and how it's the career officials at NSA that make the decisions when it comes to this.

Q The President has to obey the law.

MR. McCLELLAN: And he does.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Go helen!

[stop the bleeding]

2. I would hate to be Snotty's shorts after these PB's - man does he

have to dance the liar liar pants on fire dance:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

[northzax]

3. yeah, he got re-elected

that's what I recall.

[Lena inRI]

4. Sic 'em, Helen. . .sic 'em!

:yourock:

[sharp_stick]

5. No wonder shrub's afraid of her

Dipshit wont even look at her during press conferences anymore the gutless little shit.

[tanyev]

6. My goodness. It sure is convenient to be able to say we are "at war".

Covers a whole lot of sins.

:tinfoilhat:

[jackstraw45]

8. That IS the Bush administration's SOLE PUROSE.

You've hit the nail on the head.

[fooj]

7. My ass he does! Go Helen!

Peace.

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. Bush is an anarchist when it comes to following rules.

And to think they had the balls to criticize Clinton for lawyering the word, "is."

[Emit]

10. Bless that woman! n/t

[nytemare]

11. Who is the other guy that always bashes McClellan?

He and Helen make a great pair in the press conferences.

Recommended. I just read this on RAWSTORY and it is some good stuff.

Hope the video comes out soon.

:hi:

[soothsayer]

12. David Gregory

[nytemare]

14. Thank you, my memory was failing.

He lambastes Scotty on a regular basis. Sure he did today, just to keep with the theme that Helen set.

:hi:

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

13. Sooner or later, we have to start screaming, "This is not a war!

There is no army invading New Jersey or Texas. There has been no nuclear attack, no air raid on Pearl Harbor and no invasion of Poland.

We are not under any threat of being overrun by a conventional army or by terrorists. No foreign state is at war with us. This yelling of War! War! War! is such utter bullshit.

The only real threat to America is Bush and the neo-cons.

[Tulum_Moon]

16. Give em hell Helen

Just keep on givin it Lady!

[Virginian]

15. Sometimes I wonder why they even bother attending.

The press all know that Scotty is going to sidestep any question of substance. They aren't going to gain anything from his daily show. He lies and says we are at war, and that is about it. You would think they would get tired of it by now and ask for someone else to brief them with the truth.

Treat it like what it is, a diversion. Send minor reporters and no cameras. Why bother. Fox will report the spoon fed news and the rest can stand out in front of the White House and tell us what he said and treat the whole thing like the joke it is.

[suziedemocrat]

17. They'll be bringing back Gannon soon.

Q "Isn't it terrible when people question the President's right to protect us?"

A "Yes it is! Very good of you to say so."

Q "Is must be very difficult to keep the Muslims in check and still have your own countrymen question you."

A "Well, we try to understand their concerns, but it IS tiresome."

Q "Doesn't it say in the Constitution that when we are a nation at war the President has absolute power."

A "Yes, but most people are not aware of that. We are trying to inform them. As luck would have it, a printing error caused that very important part of the constitution to be left out over 200 years ago. We are in the process of destroying all the "invalid" constitutions and replacing them with the corrected version with the full text. Clearly the founding fathers intended our President to have absolute power in times of war. It is unfortunate that part of the constitution was lost. Since we expect to be at war indefinitely, this is a huge issue. They also left out the part that states elections can only be held when we are at peace. We don't want any unnecessary changes in the government while we are at war. If a congressmen dies while we are at war, the President will appoint a new one so everything will function normally."

Q "Wow, you are correcting so many problems in the world, how can we ever thank you!"

A "The President just loves his country. No thanks are needed."

[suziedemocrat]

23. OMG!! I was being sarcastic! Just found out he got his Press Pass back.

From this post: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x337419

Amazing!!! You'd think they'd at least train a new puppy!! OMG!! Helen must have had them in scrambles.

[Dinger]

18. Fuck It, Helen For Prez!

She could easily live 2 terms yet, or more. Wouldn't she be something!

[LynneSin]

21. Well, just in case she should have a stellar VP running with her

just in case!

[Roland99]

19. Ah, so, if the AG's word is good as gold, why bother with the hearings?

I mean, Scotty says the AG's words are what's right. There's no need for any hearing and certainly no need for any trial. We should all know that this WH and its occupants would NEVER do anything to skirt the law. NEVER.


:sarcasm:

[LynneSin]

20. I hate to disappoint Helen but....

when Nixon broke the law, Republicans were actually a somewhat honorable political party where they believed in less government and frugal spending. They actually had the morals to do the right thing even if it meant turning in a crook within their own party.

Hell, Bush could sacrifice humans on national television and the republicans will do NOTHING as long as there isn't a blow job involved. I think that's the only thing that Bush could do that could have his party turn against him!

[0rganism]

22. IIRC, Nixon was "at war", too

It was a rather large and costly war. Yet for some reason, he decided to step down after his lawbreaking became a matter of public knowledge.

I suppose Snotty would say that Nixon's "real" crime was not reclaiming for himself the rights of a Unitary Executive to protect the nation from the dangers of dissent.

[Straight Shooter]

24. "So you're saying this administration has no incentive to end the war?"

I would love to hear someone ask Scotty that question.

[Kurovski]

25. K&R for Ms. Thomas. (nt)