It was somehow fitting that veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas resigned amid controversy (details on the Maryland Politics blog) -- though it's odd that the flap involved personal views rather than presidential policy. I couldn't imagine her walking away quietly from a beat she had covered aggressively since the days of John F. Kennedy.
Thomas resigned today in the wake of outrage over comments that Jews should leave Palestine and go "home" to places including Poland and Germany. Reports of the comments led Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda to drop her as graduation speaker, and the White House Correspondents Association to consider revoking her front-row seat in the briefing room.
Thomas' outspokenness was a hallmark of White House news conferences (not that other White House correspondents are wimps). And that same tenor comes out in her books, from "Front Row at the White House" to "Listen Up, Mr. President."