Helen Thomas: Did she really say that?

At 89 years old, Helen Thomas is both the oldest, and the longest serving member of the White House press corps. As the longest serving member, she not only gets a front row seat at the daily press briefings; by custom, she has the right to throw out the first question at the President's press conferences. By virtue of her longevity, she has transcended her position to become an institution.

She also appears to be a raving anti-Semite.

Last week she was captured on camera giving her opinion regarding the Israeli-Palestinian problems in the Middle East.

Now, you can deplore Israeli policy towards the occupied West Bank. You can call Israeli military actions against the Gaza strip completely disproportionate, compared to the provocations offered by Hamas. You can even make the argument that Israeli has ceded the moral high ground of a democratic society, and created an apartheid regime.

What you really can't do is state that Jews living in the Middle East should "Go home...to Germany and to Poland...and to everywhere else."

You might be able to make the excuse for Ms. Thomas that she has suffered enough microstrokes in her frontal lobes that it has seriously affected her judgement. Maybe she really doesn't mean, or even understand, the implications of her statements.

Be that as it may, it's time for her to go. When she recites what is basically the Hamas party line, she demonstrates that she is unfit for any position as a responsible journalist. The Hearst newspaper syndicate needs to fire her.

And people bitch about Rush Limbaugh.