Helen Thomas gold medalist for honesty

Press secretaries have to have noses that are guaranteed not to grow whenever they have to play fast and loose with the truth. The three memorables under the Bush admin were Ari Fleischer, Scott McLellan and the current one Dana Perino. I suspect Ari, who attended a liberal arts college (he was a class below me at Middlebury), just couldn't look at himself in the mirror anymore, so the option was either to grow a very long beard or get out. He did the latter, but kept quiet... after all, much of the money to be earned as a groveling bootlicker for America's powers that be is to be found on the right. Trumpet patent idiocies loud and clear over the airwaves or in print, and as long as they support the far right agenda, you will be well endowed. (Bill Kristol is a perfect example). Scotty boy also had pangs of conscience... he kissed and told. Perino... Well, after the exchange above, I think she has earned a long spell in purgatory.

But let us remember... press secretary is a function of the press... Helen Thomas has been the most fearless reporter covering the Whithe House, most of the others have kissed the hand that feeds them repeatedly. Probably for fear of losing their accreditation. On light of the White House Press Corps, the conservative ravings about a liberal media appear as vast and paranoid hallucinations. Which they are, of course.

But it hardly matters. The dead in Iraq are not complaining, George Bush doesn't care either way, and the American public is busy trying to figure out what happened to all that money after a decade of arcane, razzamatazz financial bondage...