Thomas: At an earlier briefing, Ari, you said that the president deplored the taking of innocent lives. Does that apply to all innocent lives in the world?Fleischer: Well, Helen--
Thomas: And I have a follow-up.
Fleischer: --I refer specifically to a horrible terrorist attack in Tel Aviv that killed scores and wounded hundreds. And the president, as he said in a statement yesterday, deplores in the strongest terms the taking of those lives and the wounding of those people, innocents in Israel.
Thomas: My follow-up is, why does he want to drop bombs on innocent Iraqis?
She asked that question a lot, it seems, often (as in this case) trying to change the subject in the process. Very nuanced, very professional. Here are the details of the attack that Ari Fleisher was talking about, by the way.
Something else a lot of people seem to have forgotten ... not everyone considered Helen Thomas' front row center seat so sacrosanct. George W. Bush was regularly drubbed by the usual detractors for bumping her to the back of the room or otherwise snubbing her on more than one occasion (though according to this source, she retained her seat of honor for press briefings as opposed to conferences). You can find her whining about it in a mushball interview by Andrew Denton, here, or during this appearance on Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me (Round 2).Jan 5, 2003 - Twenty-three people - 15 Israelis and 8 foreign nationals - were killed and about 120 wounded in a double suicide bombing near the old Central Bus Station in Tel-Aviv. The attack was apparently carried out by two members of the Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, with the help of the Islamic Jihad.
