New Bush Press Secretary is former Fox News Host

[SuperJerk 0]

Fox analyst named Bush press secretary

Snow replaces McClellan as White House continues makeover

 

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Acknowledging the challenges ahead, former Fox News analyst Tony Snow began his second stint at the White House on Wednesday, this time as press secretary.

 

President Bush appeared with Snow in the White House briefing room to announce his choice 15 years after the commentator was a speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush.

 

"As a professional journalist, Tony Snow understands the importance of the relationship between government and those whose job it is to cover the government," Bush said.

 

Snow thanked Bush and said he took the position because he believes in the president and wants to work with the White House press corps. (Watch Bush explain why he picked Snow for the job -- 4:44)

 

"These are times that are going to be very challenging," Snow said. "We've got a lot of big issues ahead, and we've got a lot of important things that all of us are going to be covering together, and I'm very excited and I can't wait."

 

Neither Bush nor Snow took questions from reporters during the brief announcement.

 

Snow takes the job as Bush's approval rating in opinion polls has reached a new low -- 32 percent -- and as the GOP-controlled Congress worries about winning the midterm elections. (Full story)

 

As a commentator, Snow, 50, has had some critical things to say about the president.

 

For example, in a November 11 column, Snow wrote that Bush's "wavering conservatism has become an active concern among Republicans, who wish he would stop cowering under the bed and start fighting back against the likes of Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Joe Wilson."

 

"The newly passive George Bush has become something of an embarrassment," Snow wrote.

 

During the announcement, Bush shrugged off Snow's past commentary.

 

"He's not afraid to express his own opinions," the president said. "For those of you who've read his columns and listened to his radio show, he sometimes has disagreed with me. I asked him about those comments, and he said, `You should have heard what I said about the other guy.' "

 

Snow will replace Scott McClellan, who announced last week he would step down during a West Wing makeover by Josh Bolten, the new White House chief of staff.

 

Snow officially will take over the post in two weeks.

 

Before agreeing to take the assignment, Snow had sought and received assurances from Bolten and other senior aides that he would be an active participant in major policy debates and would have a significant say in press and communications hiring, sources said.

 

The White House hopes that bringing in the conservative commentator will smooth the at-times combative relationship between the administration and press corps, which deteriorated during McClellan's tenure.

 

The White House press corps often viewed McClellan as not having the needed access to the administration's decision-making to be effective.

 

The administration approached Snow weeks ago about the job, and sources familiar with his deliberations said he had been focusing on family, financial and health issues before making up his mind.

 

Snow was diagnosed with colon cancer in February 2005 and had been awaiting medical clearance before reaching a final decision.

 

Sources said that over the past week, he discussed the post with an array of senior administration officials as well as aides in previous GOP administrations and Republicans close to the White House.

 

As one source put it, Snow wanted to "address some of his questions and build a comfort level" before giving Bolten a final decision.

 

Snow also had lunch with Bush to discuss his role, two GOP sources said.

 

During the administration of Bush's father, Snow was director of speechwriting. Most recently, he has been a weekend news anchor and political analyst for the Fox News Channel, which he joined in 1996. He also has hosted "The Tony Snow Show" on Fox News Radio.

 

In addition, he was a nationally syndicated columnist with The Detroit News in Detroit, Michigan, from 1993 to 2001 and was a columnist for USA Today from 1994 to 2000.

 

Before then, he was an editorial writer at The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk; editorial page editor of The Daily Press in Newport News, Virginia; deputy editorial page editor of The Detroit News; and editorial page editor of The Washington Times.

 

McClellan became press secretary in July 2003 after his predecessor, Ari Fleischer, resigned. McClellan had been deputy press secretary under Fleischer.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/04/26/snow/index.html

 

The first place I ever heard of Snow was when he frequently guest-hosted the Rush Limbaugh Show. He was also the host of "Fox News Sunday" for 7 years, and his been a regular fixture on the Fox News Channel since its creation.

 

All of this alledged "criticism" Snow made about Bush was of the "Bush is great, but he doesn't bad-mouth Democrats enough" or "Bush needs to stick to his conservative principles" variety.

[Danville_Wrestling 0]

This should make for some interesting press conferences as Tony can be tough when he wants to be unlike Scott who just seemed lost most of the time.

[Art Sandusky 0]

Yes, a "tough" press secretary is just the thing that this administration needs. The White House already looks like a bunch of stubborn pricks, so why not add one more to improve its public image?

 

I didn't dislike Scott McClellan. I felt sorry for the guy. Would you want to be the guy who had to keep trying to shine turds?

[Guest Felonies!]

Yes, a "tough" press secretary is just the thing that this administration needs.

Well, when you're confronted with a press corps like that, you need to have a spine. Would you prefer your press secretary to fold or look lost?

[Art Sandusky 0]

I'd prefer the press secretary was a healthy medium, more assertive than strong or tough. Such words make you think of antagonism.

[snuffbox 0]

I wouldnt mind a press secretary who would answer questions honestly. But thats just my liberal/terrorist/utopia mind thinking again...

[Art Sandusky 0]

The press secretary is really the governmental equivalent of a PR guy, so I don't expect any in any administration to answer things honestly. Yes, in a just world they would, but we'll never see it.

[SuperJerk 0]

I miss Mike McCurry.

 

 

edit: Fuck, I miss every member of the Clinton Administration.

 

edit2: Except Hillary.

Edited April 27, 2006 by Y2Jerk

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

bonafied freeper~!

 

http://shii.wordpress.com/2006/04/27/delet...s-by-tony-snow/

[SuperJerk 0]

I've seen this quote a lot on the internet when I was researching lately:

 

"You think Vietnam was bad? Vietnam is nothing next to Kosovo."

 

-Tony Snow, Fox News 3/24/99

 

You remember Kosovo, don't you? The place Bill Clinton ordered military action against without a single American casualty?

 

Brilliant man, that Tony Snow.

[snuffbox 0]

Didn't the Republican folk dissaprove of the Kosovo stuff?...I cant seem to remember if they were called 'terrorists' or not...

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

Didn't the Republican folk dissaprove of the Kosovo stuff?...I cant seem to remember if they were called 'terrorists' or not...

 

"President Clinton is once again releasing American military might on a foreign country with an ill-defined objective and no exit strategy. He has yet to tell the Congress how much this operation will cost. And he has not informed our nation's armed forces about how long they will be

away from home. These strikes do not make for a sound foreign policy."

 

-Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA)

 

"No goal, no objective, not until we have those things and a compelling case is made, then I say, back out of it, because innocent people are going to die for nothing. That's why I'm against it."

 

-Sean Hannity, Fox News, 4/5/99

 

"American foreign policy is now one huge big mystery. Simply put, the administration is trying to lead the world with a feel-good foreign policy."

 

-Representative Tom Delay (R-TX)

 

"If we are going to commit American troops, we must be certain they have a clear mission, an achievable goal and an exit strategy."

 

-Karen Hughes, speaking on behalf of presidential candidate George W. Bush

 

"I had doubts about the bombing campaign from the beginning...I didn't think we had done enough in the diplomatic area."

 

-Senator Trent Lott (R-MS)

 

 

"You think Vietnam was bad? Vietnam is nothing next to Kosovo."

 

-Tony Snow, Fox News 3/24/99

 

 

"Well, I just think it's a bad idea. What's going to happen is they're going to be over there for 10, 15, maybe 20 years"

 

-Joe Scarborough (R-FL)

 

 

"I'm on the Senate Intelligence Committee, so you can trust me and believe me when I say we're running out of cruise missles. I can't tell you exactly how many we have left, for security reasons, but we're almost out of cruise missles."

 

-Senator Inhofe (R-OK )

 

"I cannot support a failed foreign policy. History teaches us that it is often easier to make war than peace. This administration is just learning that lesson right now. The President began this mission with very vague objectives and lots of unanswered questions. A month later, these questions are still unanswered. There are no clarified rules of engagement. There is no timetable. There is no legitimate definition of victory. There is no contingency plan for mission creep. There is no clear funding program. There is no agenda to bolster our overextended military. There is no explanation defining what vital national interests are at stake. There was no strategic plan for war when the President started this thing, and there still is no plan today"

 

-Representative Tom Delay (R-TX)

 

"I don't know that Milosevic will ever raise a white flag"

 

-Senator Don Nickles (R-OK)

 

"Explain to the mothers and fathers of American servicemen that may come home in body bags why their son or daughter have to give up their life?"

 

-Sean Hannity, Fox News, 4/6/99

 

"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is."

 

-Governor George W. Bush (R-TX)

 

 

"This is President Clinton's war, and when he falls flat on his face, that's his problem."

 

-Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN)

 

"The two powers that have ICBMs that can reach the United States are Russia and China. Here we go in. We're taking on not just Milosevic. We can't just say, 'that little guy, we can whip him.' We have these two other powers that have missiles that can reach us, and we have zero defense thanks to this president."

 

-Senator James Inhofe (R-OK)

 

 

"You can support the troops but not the president"

 

-Representative Tom Delay (R-TX)

 

 

"My job as majority leader is be supportive of our troops, try to have input as decisions are made and to look at those decisions after they're made ... not to march in lock step with everything the president decides to do."

 

-Senator Trent Lott (R-MS)

 

 

For us to call this a victory and to commend the President of the United States as the Commander in Chief showing great leadership in Operation Allied Force is a farce"

-Representative Tom Delay (R-TX)

 

Bombing a sovereign nation for ill-defined reasons with vague objectives undermines the American stature in the world. The international respect and trust for America has diminished every time we casually let the bombs fly."

 

-Representative Tom Delay (R-TX)

 

 

"Once the bombing commenced, I think then Milosevic unleashed his forces, and then that's when the slaughtering and the massive ethnic cleansing really started"

 

-Senator Don Nickles (R-OK)

 

"Clinton's bombing campaign has caused all of these problems to explode"

 

-Representative Tom Delay (R-TX)

 

 

"America has no vital interest in whose flag flies over Kosovo's capital, and no right to attack and kill Serb soldiers fighting on their own soil to preserve the territorial integrity of their own country"

 

-Pat Buchanan ®

 

 

"These international war criminals were led by Gen. Wesley Clark ...who clicked his shiny heels for the commander-in-grief, Bill Clinton."

 

-Michael Savage

 

 

"This has been an unmitigated disaster ... Ask the Chinese embassy. Ask all the people in Belgrade that we've killed. Ask the refugees that we've killed. Ask the people in nursing homes. Ask the people in hospitals."

 

-Representative Joe Scarborough (R-FL)

 

 

"It is a remarkable spectacle to see the Clinton Administration and NATO taking over from the Soviet Union the role of sponsoring "wars of national liberation."

 

-Representative Helen Chenoweth (R-ID)

 

"By the order to launch air strikes against Serbia, NATO and President Clinton have entered uncharted territory in mankind's history. Not even Hitler's grab of the Sudetenland in the 1930s, which eventually led to WW II, ranks as a comparable travesty. For, there are no American interests whatsoever that the NATO bombing will

either help, or protect; only needless risks to which it exposes the American soldiers and assets, not to mention the victims on the ground in Serbia."

 

-Bob Djurdjevic, founder of Truth in Media

 

http://www.crooksandliars.com/stories/2005...nAndKosovo.html

[snuffbox 0]

The Democrats and the Liberal Media must just be too busy to bring this up...

[Art Sandusky 0]

Now that was some funny, funny stuff. Someone actually compared Clinton to Hitler. Incredible.

 

I think they don't bring it up because it's hard to compare the Kosovo conflict with what's going on in Iraq, both in terms of the nature of the fighting and the number of soldiers involved. That and they'd be accused of fabricating quotes.

[BruiserKC 0]

Now that was some funny, funny stuff. Someone actually compared Clinton to Hitler. Incredible.

 

I think they don't bring it up because it's hard to compare the Kosovo conflict with what's going on in Iraq, both in terms of the nature of the fighting and the number of soldiers involved. That and they'd be accused of fabricating quotes.

 

 

With Kosovo...Clinton wasn't one of them. With Iraq...Bush is their SOB.

[Vampiro69 0]

Well Now finally got a promotion from being a speech writer for Bush Senior and now becomes the Press Secretary after a 14 year wait.

 

You could not pay me enough money to be the press secretary for a president, no matter how popular the president could be.

[SuperJerk 0]

http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9809/21/un...y.01/index.html

 

This was the only coverage on CNN's website of the speech Clinton gave about terrorism the same day the Lewinsky testimony was broadcast.

[Ginger Snaps 0]

Now that was some funny, funny stuff. Someone actually compared Clinton to Hitler. Incredible.

 

I think they don't bring it up because it's hard to compare the Kosovo conflict with what's going on in Iraq, both in terms of the nature of the fighting and the number of soldiers involved. That and they'd be accused of fabricating quotes.

 

So, conservatives blasted Clinton for Kosovo, comparing him to Hitler, and years later we have liberals doing the same thing to Bush for Iraq.

 

Wow, we've captured partisan politicians being partisan politicians. How terribly enlightening this has been.

[Art Sandusky 0]

Do you have a sense of perspective, sir/ma'am? You're comparing Kosovo to what's now a three year long war if you want to go that "oh, so what if conservatives did it also" route.

[Ginger Snaps 0]

I just think it's silly to try and paint the conservatives as the only hypocrites for supporting Bush and blasting Clinton on Kosovo, when the tables have turned and it was the Democrats supporting Clinton then and blasting Bush now.

 

Both parties suck. They'll support just about anything a president does if it's "their" guy (and I guess doesn't hurt their chances of re-election). If he isn't, than they're quick to point fingers. I think it's silly to try and portray one party as worse than the other when it comes to pulling that sort of thing off, both parties are pretty equal at it really, you just see Republicans doing it more now because it's "their" guy in office.

[Art Sandusky 0]

I think it was more to highlight the short memories of the media.

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

I just think it's silly to try and paint the conservatives as the only hypocrites for supporting Bush and blasting Clinton on Kosovo, when the tables have turned and it was the Democrats supporting Clinton then and blasting Bush now.

 

Both parties suck. They'll support just about anything a president does if it's "their" guy (and I guess doesn't hurt their chances of re-election). If he isn't, than they're quick to point fingers. I think it's silly to try and portray one party as worse than the other when it comes to pulling that sort of thing off, both parties are pretty equal at it really, you just see Republicans doing it more now because it's "their" guy in office.

 

You're ignoring the HUGE differences between Kosovo and Iraq.

[SuperJerk 0]

I just think it's silly to try and paint the conservatives as the only hypocrites for supporting Bush and blasting Clinton on Kosovo, when the tables have turned and it was the Democrats supporting Clinton then and blasting Bush now.

1. The difference is that many (not all, but certainly many of the prominent ones in the media) will not even concede that people have THE RIGHT to criticize the president or military action without being labelled anti-American. Hannity, Limbaugh, Coulter, and many the rest of those morons who TODAY claim anyone who dares criticize Bush or the war is a traitor because Bush is the president and its disloyal to criticize his handling of foreign policy, or that criticizing military actions is the same as criticizing the military, only a handful of years ago COMPLETELY BLASTED a different president while wrapping themselves in their right to do so.

 

2. Many of the arbitrary restrictions conservative pundits wanted to argue were the established rules of successful warfare do not apply to the Bush Administration's so-called War on Terror.

 

3. Kosovo was a successful military operation (both in terms of achieving stated goals within a realistic timeframe and in terms of American casualties) that these same conservatives loudly and repetively claimed would end far more disasterously than it actually did. In other words, the same idiots who were declaring would be Iraq a success were claiming Kosovo would be a failure.

 

Both parties suck. They'll support just about anything a president does if it's "their" guy (and I guess doesn't hurt their chances of re-election). If he isn't, than they're quick to point fingers. I think it's silly to try and portray one party as worse than the other when it comes to pulling that sort of thing off, both parties are pretty equal at it really, you just see Republicans doing it more now because it's "their" guy in office.

This is largely true. However, history has already proven that many of the Republicans were wrong about Kosovo, and will possibly prove them wrong about Iraq. Given all of the events of the last decade, I'd gladly side with the Democrats as the lesser of 2 evils.

[Dr. Zaius 0]

Many of the arbitrary restrictions conservative pundits wanted to argue were the established rules of successful warfare do not apply to the Bush Administration's so-called War on Terror.

 

Especially when their knowledge of successful military strategy comes directly from Republican talking points memos.

[Ginger Snaps 0]

You're ignoring the HUGE differences between Kosovo and Iraq.

 

No, I just don't care about them.

 

I don't care about whether one military action was "right" or Iraq is "wrong" or whatever, I'm not debating the merits of them. I'm just flat out saying that it's silly to harshly criticize the Republicans for supporting Bush in Iraq while blasting Clinton on Kosovo. It'd also be silly to blast the Democrats too much for supporting Clinton then and criticizing Bush now. DUH. That's what they do. If you could demonstrate categorically that both Kosovo and Iraq were "right", you'd still have Republicans saying Kosovo was wrong or Democrats saying Iraq is wrong. Just to be contrary. Because neither party can ever just stand there and say that something the other party is doing is right, even if it is. It's why I hate them. They're just awful, and they play little games like that, and then nothing good ever really comes of it.

[jesse_ewiak 0]

I just think it's silly to try and paint the conservatives as the only hypocrites for supporting Bush and blasting Clinton on Kosovo, when the tables have turned and it was the Democrats supporting Clinton then and blasting Bush now.

 

Both parties suck. They'll support just about anything a president does if it's "their" guy (and I guess doesn't hurt their chances of re-election). If he isn't, than they're quick to point fingers. I think it's silly to try and portray one party as worse than the other when it comes to pulling that sort of thing off, both parties are pretty equal at it really, you just see Republicans doing it more now because it's "their" guy in office.

 

You're ignoring the HUGE differences between Kosovo and Iraq.

 

At last count, about 2500 differences.

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

I just think it's silly to try and paint the conservatives as the only hypocrites for supporting Bush and blasting Clinton on Kosovo, when the tables have turned and it was the Democrats supporting Clinton then and blasting Bush now.

 

Both parties suck. They'll support just about anything a president does if it's "their" guy (and I guess doesn't hurt their chances of re-election). If he isn't, than they're quick to point fingers. I think it's silly to try and portray one party as worse than the other when it comes to pulling that sort of thing off, both parties are pretty equal at it really, you just see Republicans doing it more now because it's "their" guy in office.

 

You're ignoring the HUGE differences between Kosovo and Iraq.

 

At last count, about 2500 differences.

 

But there are still way more than that.

[EricMM 0]

It's not the people who said that Iraq would be a success that are the worst.

 

It the people that say that it IS a success.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

The latest issue of Rolling Stone has an article entitled "Is Bush the Worst President in US History?" or something like that. While it definitely fits in with Rolling Stone's completely liberal agenda, I read it and found it to be a pretty good article about Bush's shortcomings, without using swearing or having the author insert himself into the article like many Rolling Stone pieces.

 

The author makes a really good point about how Bush uses the war on terror, which is a war on a tactic and not a nation, to excuse everything he's done since 9/11.

[snuffbox 0]

The swearing/self-inserting guy is Matt Taibbi...an awful Hunter S Thompson impersonator. Normal RS articles are fairly well researched and written, but definitly biased.