Helen's Hell on McClellan

Once again Helen Thomas shames the rest of the White House press corps by refusing to follow her peers and roll over for Scott McClellan's non-answers. From today's White House presser (note: the official briefing video is conspicuously absent as of this writing) : 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.