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Taking the White House, press to task

By JAMES THORNER
Published March 22, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG  

The airlines lost her luggage and left her stranded for the night without a bed at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. But veteran Washington reporter Helen Thomas spared no energy Wednesday in savaging the Bush administration for its handling of the war on terror.

"We have no right to be in Iraq. It's wrong, it's illegal," she told a large crowd at the Renaissance Vinoy Resort in St. Petersburg. The 86-year-old White House press conference fixture was the paid speaker at the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce's 2007 Women's Symposium. Most of the content, including several laugh lines, was Thomas' standard lecture circuit material.

Despite strafing the Washington establishment, Thomas was grandmotherly grace with her fans in signing copies of her latest book, Watchdogs of Democracy? The book takes the press to task for what she deems insufficient skepticism after the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

Not even the president's Democratic opponents escaped unscathed. "The Democrats are very chicken," Thomas concluded.

[Last modified March 22, 2007, 01:38:50]