Thomas is seen here with Gerald Ford in 1975 while still in her, relative, prime:   

Fox News Channel talk show host Bill O’Reilly and writer/commentator Bernie Goldberg have been raked over the coals for criticizing and ridiculing Thomas for cackling at Obama’s press conference Monday.  See the one-sided story and video here:  http://www.asylum.com/2009/02/11/oreilly-caws-like-a-crow-and-other-moments-in-punditry/?icid=200100397×1219027621x1201241210.

This is admittedly extremely rude, sort of Helen-Thomas-like, but she has never been a “looker,” which is an unfortunate fact of life which often accounts for biddies and/or frustrated reporter-ettes evolving into shrieking, cackling, angry harridans, a profile which could have been written for Ms. Thomas.

It’s important to realize that Thomas is not just your average old lady, not a grand- and great-grandmotherly type who forgets her keys and maybe even where she lives.  She seems far from that stage.  When she gets down in the political trenches, which is her usual venue, she need not be accorded any more deference than any other political maven or maven-ette.

Simply because she happens to be twice Katie Couric’s age and more, like Couric, when she exceeds the bounds of civil political reporting and questioning, she deserves to get her comeuppance.  If she can’t stand the heat Good Ol’ Helen should vacate the political kitchen, a scenario which is as likely as Couric’s wising up and retreating to limited appearances on The View.

Of course, with Obama, for whom she carries on as she might have as a young girl with Rudolph Valentino, Thomas isn’t likely to get overly pushy or downright rude as she has in the past with Republican presidents.  She did ask one pertinent, and absurd, question of the new president when she referred to “these so-called terrorists” in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

As they say, Helen is Helen and she has a history.

Six years ago, speaking before an expectedly enthused audience at an MIT Communications Forum, she took the gloves off her gnarled hands and said, “I censored myself for 50 years when I was a reporter.  Now I wake up and ask myself, ‘Who do I hate today?’ “ 

Now, isn’t that just special!  For years assigned a front row seat at presidential briefings and news conferences, Ms. Thomas starts her day with determining the source of her venom....

(Read the rest of this article at http://genelalor.com/.)