Helen Thomas suicide watch

America's batty old aunt in the attic, Helen Thomas, said last week that if Cheney ran for president, she'd kill herself. The jokes and "Run, Dick, run!" comments began popping up all over the blogosphere, reproducing faster than Jesse Jackson in a room full of Rainbow/PUSH secretaries.

Well, apparently the old hag has thin skin. From Drudge:

White House press doyenne Helen Thomas is plenty peeved at her longtime friend Albert Eisele, editor of THE HILL newspaper in Washington, D.C.

In a column this week headlined "Reporter: Cheney's Not Presidential Material," Eisele quoted Thomas as saying "The day Dick Cheney is going to run for president, I'll kill myself. All we need is one more liar."

Thomas also said: "I think he'd like to run, but it would be a sad day for the country if he does," according to Eisele's column.

But Thomas said yesterday at the White House that her comments to Eisele were for his ears only. "I'll never talk to a reporter again!" Thomas was overheard saying.

"We were just talking -- I was ranting -- and he wrote about it. That isn't right. We all say stuff we don't want printed," Thomas said.

But Eisele said that when he called Thomas, "I assume she knew that we were on the record."

"She's obviously very upset about it, but it was a small item -- until Drudge picked it up and broadcast it across the universe," Eisele said.

Still, he noted that reporters aren't that happy when the tables are turned. "Nobody has thinner skin than reporters," Eisele said with a laugh.

Emphasis mine. So it's OK for a reporter to print things that are said by people who don't want their words published, and reporter will publish the words (a) if spoken by a Republican or (b) if the reporter maintains (mostly with a straight face) that the quote was fair game (kinda like Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter in last year's presidential race). But boy, you let a reporter have the shoe on the other foot, and it's just damned wrong!

Good enough for thee, but not for me, eh Helen?