I'll be damned
Tony Snow, huh? This should be interesting.
You know what? President Bush spends much of his time these days doing a more credible Inspector Clouseau than Steve Martin, but every now and then he gets something extraordinarily right. Unfortunately, it's usually something he should have done years earlier.
Tony Snow will be a hoot as press secretary. He'll probably make me forget all about Ari Fleischer.
Meanwhile, courtesy of The Corner, here's a helpful compendium of Tony Snow quotes to clip and save against the thoroughly predictable charges that Bush only appoints obsequious sycophants.
Bush has “lost control of the federal budget and cannot resist the temptation to stop raiding the public fisc.” [3/17/06]"George W. Bush and his colleagues have become not merely the custodians of the largest government in the history of humankind, but also exponents of its vigorous expansion.” [3/17/06]
President Bush distilled the essence of his presidency in this year’s State of the Union Address: brilliant foreign policy and listless domestic policy.” [2/3/06]
"George Bush has become something of an embarrassment.” [11/11/05]
Bush “has a habit of singing from the Political Correctness hymnal.” [10/7/05]
“No president has looked this impotent this long when it comes to defending presidential powers and prerogatives.” [9/30/05]
Bush “has given the impression that [he] is more eager to please than lead, and that political opponents can get their way if they simply dig in their heels and behave like petulant trust-fund brats, demanding money and favor -- now!” [9/30/05]
Hmm. The more I read, the more I wonder whether we should just give him Karl Rove's job in addition to Scott McLellan's.
Comments
I thought it was fitting that the introduction was ended the way I imagine Snow's tenure as press secretary will go. The intro was made, joking was done, and they left, taking no questions.
Posted by: K | April 26, 2006 01:32 PM
This is driving the DUers wild. They cannot comprehend how the White House could have hired someone who has been critical of the President.
I don't mean that they find this unexpected, apparently they cannot cope with the concept of hiring someone with an independant opinion -- like it's unconstitutional or something.
Posted by: withoutfeathers | April 26, 2006 01:55 PM
Fox News, Fair and Balanced!
I wonder if the next Fox anchor will get to be Secretary of State.
Posted by: Anonymous | April 26, 2006 02:14 PM
"Fox News, Fair and Balanced!
I wonder if the next Fox anchor will get to be Secretary of State."
Were you this concerned when David Gergen left PBS to become an advisor to Bill Clinton?
Posted by: withoutfeathers | April 26, 2006 03:13 PM
Why yes, I am always concerned when government and media collude. America is becoming a single Government/Corporate/Media entity.
This is what the founding fathers feared, which is why they included so many checks and balances.
Morons like you cheer while Bush and the criminal Republican congress tries to put an end to checks and balances, because they are your buddies! They are just like you! They are against the Liberals!
Stupid fuckwit.
Posted by: Anonymous | April 27, 2006 10:32 AM
If the founding fathers were to see Tony Snow as Bush's lackey, my god, they would just want to die right there. They envisioned a process by which the citizens elect the press secretary (with a paper receipt) but Bush and Rove just railroaded right through it.
Democracy is totally over.
Posted by: ortho | April 27, 2006 11:02 AM
Well, I guess you had no problem with Clinton's pardon of Marc Rich then, right?
You didn't flop around gasping and flailing your arms around then, did you?
Oh, that's right, you DID.
Why? President have the right to pardon criminals.
Posted by: Anonymous | May 2, 2006 10:53 AM
"Why yes, I am always concerned when government and media collude. America is becoming a single Government/Corporate/Media entity." (anony-MOUSE)
OK, you really ARE a complete dufus...and NOT because you're entirely wrong this time, you're not. It really IS true what they say about a stopped clock.
Still, you're one of the very few people who can pull off being a dufus even while being at least partly right.
Congratzi!
Every President's PRESS SECRETARY is chosen from among the ranks of the media to represent and spin that administration's agenda.
That's NOT an example of media-government collusion.
George Stephanopolous going from the Clinton administration directly to ABC TV, certainly IS. For awhile, CBS, ABC & NBC had gleaned most of their news directors from among the ranks of prominent Democratic political leaders.
Here's the dope on George Stephanopolous; "He (Stephanopolous) is ABC News's Chief Washington Correspondent and the host of ABC's Sunday morning news show This Week; he was previously a senior political adviser to the 1992 U.S. presidential campaign of Bill Clinton and later became Clinton's press secretary and communications director."
It's the seemless moving FROM government into the MEDIA that tends to highlight how incestuous media and government have become. If Tony Snow goes back to FoxNews after his stint as Press Secretary, instead of say teaching journalism at some esteemed College, THAT TOO would be an example of media-government collusion.
It's an important distinction and one that shows that this incestuous relationship between media & government has been going on for a very long time, but YOU disingenuously portray it as a new phenomenon started, or accelerated under G W Bush...and THERE, you're dead wrong, as I just proved.
Only a complete dufus would do what you just tried to do - portray the incestuous relationship between media and government as (1) NEW and (2) started or accelerated under G W Bush.
Come on, wise up...you won't look so stupid, even if you remain so.
Posted by: JMK | May 5, 2006 09:33 AM