Tony Snow, RIP

Tony Snow died early Saturday morning at the age of 53, finally succumbing to the cancer he'd beaten back twice before. The eccentric hierarchy of fame dictates that Snow will be remembered by most people for his tenure as President Bush's combative press secretary, though it lasted only 17 months. And as press secretaries go, Snow was certainly a memorable one, turning his press briefings into daily jousts with the White House press corps. When Hearst columnist Helen Thomas once gave a speech, loosely disguised as a question, demanding that Bush halt Israel's invasion of Lebanon, Snow listened patiently, then amiably thanked Thomas for offering "the Hezbollah view" of American policy.

Before and after working as press secretary, Snow was a television commentator -- first for Fox News, later for CNN. He was a conservative, but certainly not a Republican Party shill. I spilled coffee on myself one morning when he dismissively said that Bush's domestic policies were so liberal that he amounted to "a dime-store Democrat." (That's why I nearly spilled coffee again when I heard Snow was becoming press secretary.) He ripped Republican corruption and pork-barrel projects and was skeptical about the need to go to war in Iraq; as host of Fox News Sunday, he said several times that he wished the White House had photos of stacks of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

But I'll always think of Snow as a newspaper guy, because that's what he did for the first 20 years of his career. He worked mostly as an editorial writer -- notably at the Detroit News and the Washington Times -- but he certainly learned some things from the reporters around him. When the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated while trying to land in 2003, Snow happened to be on the air on Fox News moderating a talking-heads commentary show. He quickly switched into news mode and did a first-class job of anchoring the breaking story. I worked with Tony, very briefly, two decades ago, and found him smart, witty and gracious. (And I'll bet even Helen Thomas would agree.) But the nicest thing I can say about him is that, if he'd wanted to, he could have been a great reporter.

Comments

[Reverend Ira L. Lewis]

This destructive administration have destoyed many of lives in one way or another. Personally, I thought Tony Snow was a good person; but getting involved with the Bush (Dumb Dubya) band brought him down quicker. Many honored top military personnel lives have withered because of this rottened core administration; and many innocent young people, who had their lives and world ahead of them, are early in the grave because of the vagabonds of this administration and the cowards that would not stand up to them. Reverend Ira L. Lewis 2009B Conestoga Trail Austin, TX 78744-3568 5124431079 iradject@yahoo.com.

[Begoñe Cazalis]

I love the way you wrote this.