Bush Rigs Camera; Misses Troll Reporter

President Bush held a news conference today and seemed very disappointed that a camera he had rigged to fall on the head of annoying reporter and wrinkled troll, Helen Thomas, failed. It was a dissapointing Wile E. Coyote moment. He played it off well though, using humor to hide his frustration at missing his attempt to “conk” the Troll on the head. From the AP here:

WASHINGTON – President Bush’s first news conference of the year was just a camera strap away from becoming hazardous to reporters.

As the president began his opening statement, a camera that the news service AFP had hung from the ceiling dropped and nearly fell on the heads below. It was caught by its strap, and Bush stopped and looked at it dangling precariously.

“Are you wearing your helmets?” he joked to reporters sitting in the White House briefing room.

Bush was full of quips during the 45-minute news conference, poking fun at the media and deflecting some of the heat when questioning got intense.

Yes, Bush acknowledged, he had his picture taken with admitted criminal Jack Abramoff.

“Having my picture taken with someone doesn’t mean that I’m a friend with him or know him very well,” he said. “I’ve had my picture taken with you at holiday parties.”

Helen Thomas was snubbed by the President during the press conference, even though she raised her hand and went “Ooh! Ooh!” I’m certain the president snubbed her because she is always stuck on stupid. She asks the same dumbass questions over and over again, and she has the annoying habit of looking like a bitter old troll. Maybe she should go back to living under a nearby bridge and harrassing billy goats.

This is from Drudge-

President Bush today again avoided taking a question from White House doyenne Helen Thomas during his 45-minute press conference, even though he took questions from every reporter around her front-row, center seat.

“He’s a coward,” Thomas said afterward. “He’s supposed to be this macho guy. He’ll take on Osama bin Laden, but he won’t take me on.”

Thomas, who worked as the UPI White House reporter for 57 years and is now a columnist, raised her hand every time the president was concluding an answer to a reporter’s question, but he never called on her.

She had a few questions in mind, though. “I wanted to ask about Iraq: ‘You said you didn’t go in for oil or for Israel or for WMDs. so why did you go in?'”

She also had another question at the ready, just in case, this one about the president’s contention that a 28-year-old wiretapping law known as FISA is out of date, which prompted him to order the National Security Agency to conduct a secret electronic surveillance program that Democrats contend is illegal.

“You keep saying it’s a 1978 law, but the Constitution 200 years old. Is that out of date, too?”

Afterward, Thomas sat sullenly in her chair in the White House press work area, huddled in her leopard-print winter coat.

Aww… The Troll’s feelings were hurt. Even though the UPI folded up and locked its doors years ago, Helen still remains. And if you think I’m being mean about calling the old battleax a troll, take a look at this. One photo is a model for a Troll from the Lord of the Rings Movie. The other is Helen Thomas. Can you pick out the real woman?

Update: The Political Teen has a video of the news conference here.