Helen Thomas takes Scotty McClellan to the woodshed... again

You'd probably never expect to hear this from me, but I almost have to feel sorry for White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan these days. His job is rather analgous to that of being the Mouth of Sauron. Sure, it's great fun to speak for the dark lord while his minions are running roughshod over most of Middle Earth. But once the orcs start taking a beating and his back's against the wall, you really don't want to be out there speaking for him. With the deluge of scandals, corruption and bad news plaguing the Bush administration these days, Scott's job can't be much fun.

What little enjoyment it might have can, in particular, be sucked right out of the room when Helen Thomas gets on your case. Unlike the normal assortment of administration lap dogs that make up the White House press corps, Thomas has been a thorn in the side of every president since JFK, and shows no signs of going away any time soon. Now, with the hearings over the NSA illegal wiretaps starting, Helen decided to once agin rake Scotty over the coals for a while. (UPDATE: You can get the full text of the press gaggle at the White House web site.)

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.

Q There is no rationale --

MR. MCCLELLAN: And Helen, I think you have to ask --

Q -- (inaudible) -- the law.

MR. MCCLELLAN: I think you have ask are we -- 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 The question is, the point is, there are means for him to go to -- get a warrant to spy on people.

This goes on for a while, with Scotty doing his best tap dancing exhibition to get away from Helen's line of questioning, until she breaks out the big guns.

Q You know what happened to Nixon when he broke the law.

MR. MCCLELLAN: This is a very different circumstance, and you know that.

Q No, I don't.

All I know is that when Helen finally leaves the press corps, (what is she now... like 75? 80?) we're screwed.