From CNN:
Fox News’ Tony Snow is set to move from the anchor chair to the hot seat, agreeing to take on the role of White House press secretary amid slumping poll ratings for President Bush.
The appointment of Snow, who has formally accepted the job, will be announced Wednesday morning, according to three Republican sources familiar with Snow’s discussions with the White House.
He will replace Scott McClellan, who announced last week he would step down from the post during a West Wing makeover by new White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten.
Snow, 50, serves as a weekend news anchor and political analyst for the Fox News Channel, which he joined in 1996. He also hosts the Tony Snow Show on Fox News Radio.
The three Republican sources told CNN that before agreeing to take on the post, Snow had sought and received assurances from Bolten and other senior White House officials that he would be an active participant in major policy debates and would have a significant say in hiring in the press and communications operations.
Snow also had lunch with Bush to discuss his role, two of those sources told CNN.
Glib, articulate, comfortable in front of the camera—just the kind of smiling fascist Press Secretary you’d expect the Bushies to install as a mouthpiece for their sinister imperialist agenda. Cue: leftwing apoplexy and the almost ritualistic, frothing invocation of Roger Ailes.
As I noted earlier, commenters at Think Progress—a “serious” Democratic strategy and information site—had already begun calling Snow “Snowjob,” and comparing him to Baghdad Bob and, sadly, Jos. Goebbels. Because, you know, Bush = Hitler and all.
On the positive side, given that kind of company, could a scholarship offer from Yale be far behind?
it’s a Snow job!
Tony will do a great job. I see some very amusing footage coming out of the White House press room. If you listen really closely, you can hear David Gregory’s stomach turning.
Meanwhile, Helen is getting damp…
In his first action, he hired Ann Coulter to run the White House Press Club Bar. The Secret Service has assigned her the code name “Carla.”
While I’m sure Tony is cruising the blogs looking for advice, one thing I’d suggest would be a site with streaming video of these actual press conferences, so the public can see what their press corps really looks like in action…
Good. Maybe with a media-savvy guy like him someone in the executive branch will actually manage to clearly communicate an idea or policy position once in a while. Better late than never I guess.
“he would be an active participant in major policy debates”
Is that usual for Press Secs? It’s a great idea, though, where Tony’s concerned. He has buckets and coolers of commonsense, such as not getting hysterical over the “marauding hordes” of Mejicanos come to avenge Santa Anna, take our office jobs and make tequila the national drink.
Wish the GOP would stuff their unpromising pandering pols and go with a Hume/Snow ticket in ‘08. She demurs, but a Rice/Snow combo would be pure as the driven.
mmmmm, me too, me too. though mentioning things he handled well, his was the one show i could listen to about the ports deal and not get irate about. he does seems really level headed.
Tony is a class act, especially the way he fought cancer with dignity and humor. Though he is a great conservative, he’s always handled the journalist aspects of his career as just that: journalism (NYT, LAT, WAPO: take note). He can engage anyone keeping his cool, and looking like the great professional he is. This is a great move on the part of the White House. I’ll bet Tony re-defines the role of the White House press secretary.
Tony Snow is biased and will continue to bring bias to the biased White House. They need someone unbiased.
Dude, he called dubya “impotent.” They’re saying “snowjob” as praise!
Now lets see how well he toes a line.
Have you ever, like, tried looking for this magical site that will clear up all misconceptions? Once there did you click a link to a particular briefing, and then seen hte box that says ‘video’?
They do make you install realplayer though. Fascists!
“Tony Snow is biased and will continue to bring bias to the biased White House. They need someone unbiased.”
Well, hell, would Britney’s unborn child do?
Even the Christ Child is too biased, in my opinion. There’s only one Immaculate Perception.
God, will you please shut the fuck up, actus? You are such an ignorant tool.
I’m gonna break the ignore-actus rule this once because that’s actually a useful link.
But what I’m looking for is a camera FULL-TIME on the reporters, not the speaker. I’m not worried about the trained ape on the stage; it’s the shit-flinging howler monkeys in the pack I want to keep an eye on.
Kemal Attaturk was unavailable for comment.
SB: doing
my best
“There’s only one Immaculate Perception.”
Ooooohhh. You must mean Jimmy Carter for PressSec- why didn’t you just say so? And he has the extra added benefit of knowing where the thermostats are in the WH to set them at energy saving temps, sacrificing his and Bush’s comfort for the good of American kind.
(Uh, you’re not suggesting yourself, are you, David?)
Snow’s a pretty classy guy, so I guess we won’t be seeing him say, “Shut the fuck up, Helen.”
Mick was right: you can’t always get what you want.
“it’s the shit-flinging howler monkeys in the pack I want to keep an eye on”
Mencken’s Ghost has the right idea, which would be ever more effective if Tony spiked the pressroom coffee pots with a tad extra caffeine, made the chairs kinda squeaky, and piped in Barry Manilow music as a background feed to the proceedings. Might be kind of fun if Tony had a sound effects box behind the podium with buttons he could push for warm laughter, derisive snorts, mike static, a pre-recorded offer to help Helen across the street, and a loud belching sound for every time a reporter said “poll”, “corruption” or “the American people”.
Well, at least not in so many words.
I was thinking more along the lines of:
“Helen, you ignorant slut…”
I don’t watch much TV, so I’ve only seen Tony occasionally.
He could hardly do worse than the schmuck who’s being shown the door, but to me the most important thing is that he is coming from outside the bubble, and has personal experience with how BigMedia operates (i.e. usually to the White House’s detriment). Snow may be Bush’s first spokesman who realizes the size of the target the press has painted on the President’s back, and how many LeftMedia desperados are gunning for it…
Although I admire President Bush for not stooping to the sort of hysterical rhetoric his opponents use, I think this administration has let its antagonists in the press get away with far too much. Sometimes I get the impression that they don’t even realize (or care) how badly their message gets drowned out in the media’s tempest of bias. Turning the other cheek is virtuous, to be sure, but I think we now have sufficient evidence to conclude that it has limited viability as a political communications strategy.
Thanks, guys. Not sure what I will miss more, food or sex because I have lost the appetite for both, forever.
Blasting about the various blogs today I read the list of Snow’s anti-Bush quotes from one of the lefty blogs (who lifted it from American progress)….and later read on ‘The Corner’ that those quotes show that Snow can’t be accused of being a blind Bush lover. To quote:
“…at least it can’t be said then that Bush only surrounds himself with “yes men” in his “bubble.”
Bush quote:
Beeeyoootiful.
Its not enough to just hear them? But I get what you’re saying. Sometimes a good question gets asked. I’d like to know who it was.
Tony will be great if they don’t wear him down.
Those reporters are such tedious ass holes, and you have to pretend to like them. I know I couldn’t take it.
As long as I have been able to remember you could see WH pressers at least after the fact at C-SPAN.
Want to bet?
Can’t wait.
The press corp will, quite simply, kick the shit out of that reactionary fool.
Christ, the man must love abuse.
Tony Snow. Yeah. Oh Yeah.
Couldn’t happen to a better person.
Did that fantasy arrive along with a woody, Carl? You sound turgid, though I didn’t think that was possible.
Zip…
Downstroke.
Upstroke.
Downstroke. Puke.
tw: little. heh.
so the public can see what their press corps really looks like in action…
I get what you’re saying Ghost but I think it’s a slippery slope.
When the people see just what a collection of unattractive stess-mutations these reporters are, they will tune out. The news orgs will then start switching out the uglies for the Lara Logans and soon “style” questions will be the fare. eg. “Can you tell me why the President wore that tie with that shirt?”
“The press corp will, quite simply, kick the shit out of that reactionary fool,” says the sicko turned on by the prospect of our monolithic, partisan press corps ganging up on a fellow journalist who doesn’t hold to its worldview.
Leftist pack mentality rules. National discourse raped. And business as usual. Lovely, Carl.
unattractive? why does that matter?
Bush may speak for crap, but the man gets the finest of ironies:
That is so perfect; so inescapable. Leave the drive-by scum wondering what just hit em while knowing exactly why it did: Their own pointless, overt perfidy. Infinitely worse than whores, they.
That line’s almost as elegant as Snow looking down, a month hence, as Thomas gets her little doggy teeth all caught in his cuff. He’ll look back up, smile wanly, and the entire room, if not the country, will once again instantly know what assholes the press have become…and that without another word escaping his lips.
I used to think right vs left was politics. Then I realized it was really power and corruption vs liberty.
Now I understand it’s just bullshit vs integrity. As well and regularly evidenced by one of our self-loathing talking resident fish heads:
The man’s merely standing there will, quite simply, out the pack of hyenas known as the American press all over again. The beauty is that as with his predecessor, he doesn’t need to say a word.
Bush must be laughing already. It’s just too easy.
Speaking of self-outing:
Whoosh!
unattractive? why does that matter?
You’re ugly aren’t you actus? I apologize for any collateral hurt feelings. And you’re right in asking. After all, CNN uses a bunch of Thunderdome extras to report their “news”.
I stand corrected.
But it’s because of the hypocrisy!
I still think Helen Thomas can whip David Gregory’s ass. What a bitch. David, I mean.
Isn’t everyone that asks whether attractiveness has to do with ability to ask questions?
Guess I’ll have to do it…..ignore acthole.
Hey Carl,
Maybe this little tidbit will help you “analyze” the media on the Left. Headline from Drudge:
If you wait a couple of months, you should be able to pick up the Kos book at the bargain bin for $1.98 and I would suggest you get the Air America broadcasts on your ipod so you’ll have something to listen to after the fold up.
Could the Kos books be converted into cheap, clean burning fuel?
Ooh. That was a stupid question. And I’m gorgeous. There’s got to be a connection!
Welcome to Tony Snow’s White House Morning Zoo!
Snow’s a tad on the old side, so he’ll need a sidekick…like a fast talking 30-something of either Jewish or Italian ethnicity. Queue up random quote from 40-year-old-Virgin, get a call-in line, and traffic updates on the 6’s.
Today’s breifing: What’s up with all these fat kids I’m seeing today?!
They’ve been burning dung in India for generations.
What’s the fuel efficiency on a dung-burning SUV?
And that’s Mile per….?
acthole..?
It’s the same as a turd.
alppuccino,
They get crappy milage.
“Snow’s a tad on the old side, so he’ll need a sidekick…like a fast talking 30-something of either Jewish or Italian ethnicity.”
like Goldstein?
“Queue up random quote from 40-year-old-Virgin”
like actus?
unattractive? why does that matter?
2 words, Helen Thomas.
2 words, Helen Thomas.
That’s 3 words, isn’t it?
unattractive? why does that matter? Translation: Real beauty begins with the level of hatred you hatred for Bush!! Helen Thomas, Que Monumento!!! meowwwww
looks like the senate is getting the message.
Senate Shifts Iraq Funds to Borders, Ports
TW Thomas/Formaldehyde
RACIST!
I’d like to have that Actus fella in a hot attic with a cold case of beer.
Actus is right. There is no correlation between televised news and attractiveness.
I don’t know Diane, that Walter Cronkite look pretty good to me.
Or he could then open up his colostomy bag and demonstrate to the White House Press Corps what they have been writing of late.