Helen Thomas -- A Heroine of our Times!

Without doubt, Ms. Helen Thomas is one of the true "heroines" of our times. She has made presidents from Eisenhower (and possibly ) Truman to Bill Clinton and GWB think hard about how to squeeze around her insightful and sharp questioning. Her questions this week to Tony Snow had him stammering for several seconds before he accidentally blundered into negating one of the Administration's major assertions re. the "Occupation" (not "War") in Iraq.

Still that didn't stop Representative Steve King (R, Iowa) from attempting to titillate a partisan Republican audience by making fun of this fine 86 year-old woman's looks, of all things. He was commenting on the great republican victory of 2006 (the death of Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi by either a 500-lb LGB or an Al-Qaida bullet -- cause of death still not made public -- when he mused that perhaps the Al-Qaida leader in Iraq might not be received by 72 virgins in his personal Hell, and if he were so "received," they (the 72 virgins) "would all look like Helen Thomas."

Well, I am 71 years-old myself and take his remarks as "over the top" in lack of respect for those of us who no longer look like Tom Cruise or Jessica Alba. (I never did look like Tom Cruise, BTW, but I kinda think I looked a little like King Kong or Arnold Schwarzenegger.