[Cross-posted at Z Word.]
I take no pleasure from the fact that right-wing pundits are lashing Helen Thomas over her two-part question to President Obama last night. And yet Thomas deserves to be upbraided. The fact that she’s held up by liberals as a paragon of courage is an embarrassment. Drifting further toward the fringe every day, she certainly doesn’t speak for me.
Mr. President, do you think that Pakistanis are maintaining the safe haven in Afghanistan for these so-called terrorists, and also do you know of any place in the Middle East that has nuclear weapons?
Most lefty commentators seem delighted with the Israel-baiting of question two. M. J. Rosenberg of TPM Cafe hails “the great Helen Thomas” (please) and takes Obama to task for “dissing” her (ditto). John Santore of HuffPo applauds Thomas as well. Both ignore Thomas’s reference to “so-called terrorists” in the Pakistan-Afghanistan corridor, a category that would include people like Baithullah Mehsud and Maulana Fazlullah, among the world’s most bloodthirsty fanatics, who routinely attack girls’ schools and punish all who commit the crime of enjoying music. But let’s not come down too hard on them with the “t” word. No, instead, let’s bait Israel, and better yet, let’s do it in code rather than say what we mean. And Thomas is celebrated for cutting through the beltway bullshit and speaking the truth. In fact she’s as much a double-talker as anyone.
Obama would have been a chowderhead to handle the question any differently than he did. Mentioning Israel, in this context, would hand a propaganda victory to the mullahs in Tehran, who would seize on it to shore up their supposed right to nuclear weapons. Objecting to Thomas’s remark on “so-called” terrorists would have created more of a stir than the situation merited. Once again, Obama came out looking whip-smart and big-picture-focused. I’m not surprised.
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