From staff and wire reports
WASHINGTON
Tony Snow, the conservative columnist and television commentator who relished sparring with reporters during a 17-month stint as President Bush's press secretary, died Saturday. He was 53.
Snow's death was announced by the White House. When a recurrence of cancer interrupted his tenure there, he chose to talk about it openly and said he wanted to offer hope to other patients. His message to them, he said, was: "Don't think about dying. Think about living."
Snow worked for The Virginian-Pilot as an editorial writer in 1981 and 1982, and then became editorial page editor for the Daily Press in Newport News until 1984.
With his tall, lanky frame; his head of thick gray hair (it thinned, but never disappeared, during chemotherapy); and his showman's style, Snow helped reinvigorate a press operation that many Republicans believed had been lacking. He had joined the White House in April 2006 and loved serving there. He once called it "the most exciting, intellectually aerobic job I'm ever going to have."
Bush learned of the death at Camp David, where he is spending the weekend.
"It was a joy to watch Tony at the podium each day," Bush said in a statement. "He brought wit, grace and a great love of country to his work. "
Before becoming the chief spokesman for the president, Snow was a syndicated newspaper columnist and later a commentator for Fox News. He was also host of the network's Sunday public affairs program "Fox News Sunday."
At the White House, he turned the daily press briefing into something of a one-man show, challenging reporters' questions and delivering hard-hitting answers, even when he was occasionally short on the facts. More than once, Snow was forced to apologize, as he did shortly after taking the job, when he erroneously said Bush viewed embryonic stem-cell research as murder.
"He's velvet glove and iron fist," Jim Axelrod, the CBS White House correspondent, once said in describing Snow.
Coming into the job, Snow had credibility with the news media because, as a commentator, he had often been critical of Bush. But the transition from pundit to mouthpiece proved complicated for him, as he struggled to rein himself in.
"Tony Snow broke the mold - he was a completely different kind of press secretary," said Ann Compton of ABC News, who has covered six presidents. "For one thing, he would give you his own opinion and you'd have to say, 'Tony, wait, I asked what the president thought.' "
His snappy sound bites made Snow an instant hit among Republicans.
"It's like Mick Jagger at a rock concert," Karl Rove, the president's former political strategist, once said in describing him.
During the 2006 congressional midterm campaign, Snow raised eyebrows by using his celebrity to raise money for Republican candidates - something that by Snow's own admission other press secretaries had declined to do for fear of seeming too partisan.
He also had a musical flair; he taught himself the acoustic guitar and played in an amateur rock 'n' roll band, Beats Workin'.
Compton, who had been in touch with Snow in recent months, said his condition took a turn for the worse after the White House correspondents' dinner in April. H e e-mailed her to say he had been suffering intestinal problems and that he was having a harder time recovering. On June 13, Compton received another unexpected message from Snow, who by then was quite sick, she said.
He had heard that Helen Thomas, the 87-year-old veteran White House correspondent with whom he had had some of his most pointed exchanges, was ill. "If in touch, would you please pass on my love," Snow wrote.
Snow died at 2 a.m. Saturday at Georgetown University Hospital, according to Fox News Channel.
"If God needs a press secretary, he's got a good one," Roger Ailes, president of the channel, said a few hours later on "Fox & Friends."
Robert Anthony Snow was born in Berea, Ky., on June 1, 1955, and grew up in Cincinnati. He graduated from Davidson College in North Carolina in 1977.
He then shuffled from job to job, first as a caseworker for the mentally ill in North Carolina, then as a teacher in Cincinnati and Kenya before doing graduate work in economics and philosophy at the University of Chicago.
In 1979, he discovered journalism. He started as an editorial writer for editor Terry Eastland at the Greensboro (N.C.) Record, then followed Eastland to The Virginian-Pilot in 1981.
He made an immediate impression on Beth Williams, the assistant to the editorial writers, with an unexpected gesture for her 40th birthday: He baked her a cake. They exchanged birthday greetings for years after, she said.
"There really is no meanness in him," said Glenn Allen Scott, then the associate editor of The Pilot's editorial page. Although the two often disagreed on issues, "it was always very civil."
Snow went on to become editorial page editor at the Daily Press in Newport News.
"Tony was, right off the bat, an intellectual with a great sense of humor," said Ernie Gates, who succeeded Snow as editorial page editor of the Daily Press in 1984 and is now the paper's editor.
Snow was an unabashed conservative, but as editorial page editor in Newport News, he wanted an opinion page that reflected a spectrum of views, Gates said. Among his hires was Gordon Morse, an outspoken liberal who had been Virginia director of Common Cause, a public interest group. Morse went on to serve as a speechwriter for Gov. Gerald L. Baliles, a Democrat, and now works as a freelance writer and contributing editor at the Daily Press.
Snow believed strongly in one of the core goals of the Reagan revolution: bringing power closer to the people, Morse said.
He liked to sprinkle his editorials with flamboyant language - "verbs and modifiers that sent people racing to their dictionary," Morse recalled.
He also had backbone. When anyone challenged the paper's position, Morse said, "he was as solid as a rock."
While many writers are content to hide behind a typewriter, Snow's move to the podium and the TV screen was a natural transition, Morse said.
"Tony liked the stage - he thrived on it," he said.
In 1984, Snow became deputy editorial editor at the Detroit News, where he met and married the editor's secretary, Jill Ellen Walker. In 1987, he became editorial page editor at the Washington Times.
In 1991, he left newspapers to join the first Bush administration as a speechwriter. During the Clinton administration, he went back into journalism, and he was the first host of "Fox News Sunday," from 1996 to 2003. He was the host of a Fox News radio show when he was hired by the current administration.
Snow often said that he felt stalked all his adult life by the threat of colon cancer; his mother died of the disease when he was 17. By the time he joined the White House, he had already been treated for it.
When he joined, he said he believed that he had beaten his cancer.
The cancer recurred in March 2007, less than a year after Snow took the White House job. He underwent surgery again, took five weeks off, and returned. But he announced in September that he was resigning his $168,000-a-year job - not because of the cancer, he said, but because he wanted to make more money to support his family.
He is survived by his wife and their three children, Kendall, Robbie and Kristi, who live in Northern Virginia.
This article was compiled from reports by staff writer Dale Eisman, The New York Times and The Washington Post.
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"in case you din't know it"
DIN'T know it? Holy crap, I've been debating Ricky Ricardo.
RE: challenge
Sarcastic comments are a sign of insecurity, in case you din't know it. Lumping all Liberals as one is a sign of lack of intellect. Am I a registered, yep, sure am. Are you bright enough to be one or does your insecurity and lack of intellect keep you from doing so in a responsible manner?
challenge
Show me once in my postings where I called anyone a name - you are the one guilty of this.
"Speaking of tiresome, have you read your own comments?" Is this your version of "I know you are but what am I?"
Please tell me you aren't registered to vote.
RE: more typical tripe
"And please don’t say “you have no room to talk” any more. It’s tiresome. Please come up with something new. I’m sure it will be as banal but at least it will be different."
Make you a deal cs, you come up with something that doesn't involve name calling and lumping all liberals in the same group and I'll see what I can do. Speaking of tiresome, have you read your own comments?
RE RE: More typical liberal tripe
What’s funny about your comment is that, going back over all of these comments, the only people I found who resorted to name calling was the liberals. I certainly didn’t. Someone referred to Mr. Snow as “Bush’s Baghdad Bob.” The greatest irony of your accusation is that YOU called President Bush “a clown” and “the biggest joke we have ever seen as president.” You resort to name calling and then falsely accuse (apparently me and) others of doing so. And please don’t say “you have no room to talk” any more. It’s tiresome. Please come up with something new. I’m sure it will be as banal but at least it will be different.
help yourself to a dictionary
Look up hyperbole and learn something.
RE: More typical liberal tripe
"Liberals love to call someone a liar when they make a mistake."
And Repubs think they can walk on water. Let me know ehn they do. The other thing I've noticed a con-serative can't make a comment without calling liberals names. After looking at what you have in the White House you have no room to talk.
Now lies are "exaggeration"
Now cs says his lies are "exaggeration".
What a command of the facts!
try to keep up
I was using exaggeration to make a point; sorry it went over your head. It would be as if I said that liberals never ever say anything intelligent. Well of course it you look hard enough you'll see one say something intelligent, albeit probably accidentally. The bottom line is that you will almost always see Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, etc, identified as conservative, which is fine because they are. What you will rarely see is people like Bill Moyers, Helen Thomas or Dan Rather identified as liberal, which they most certainly are. When you do, it is most commonly meant to contrast them with a conservative, which was the case in both this Pilot story and the one you dug up.
Speaking of making stuff up, did you see Senator Claire McCaskill on "Meet the Press" yesterday? She said, "there is nothing inconsistent about Barack Obama's position on Iraq." At least I was able to start the
lores
"liberal has lie in the first four letters."
The comments about the death of Tony Snow have reached a level beyond stupid and insensitive. The above quote from Lores makes no sense whatsoever. Democrats don't slam Repubs as much as Repubs do. Most Repubs can't make a comments unless it's name calling and blatant.
I wasn't a Snow fan, but I still feel sorry for his family and fiends, some of you could learn a little respect of others.
tripe, cs?
Almost a year and a half is much shorter than never ever. You show that republicans don't know what they are talking about and just make up stuff instead of using facts.
tasteless
Nice comment. At least the true character of liberals comes out. Anyone losing his life from cancer at 53 is tragic, but I suppose if he holds different political views he is unworthy of sympathy, huh?
Baghdad Bob
Bush's Baghdad Bob is dead. At least Scott McClellan had the guts to come clean.
First three letters...
And what are the first three letters of conservative? Just asking, since discussion has devolved to this sorry point.
Nope but liberal has lie in
Nope but liberal has lie in the first four letters.
liberal is not
a four letter word. Stop trying to make it sound like one, and who in the heck are you to be talking anyway with a clown like Bush & Cheney in the White House. The biggest joke we have ever seen as president. You people have no room to talk.
That is becuase liberals
That is becuase liberals consider themselves as centrist and conservatives are the "far right".
more typical liberal tripe
Liberals love to call someone a liar when they make a mistake. I stand corrected. You were able to find something to refute my erroneous claim by going back almost a year and a half. Well done. You got me. The fact that you had to go so far back proves the gist of my point, which I will amend to say you almost never see a commentator or columnist identified as being liberal. You will almost always, however, see anyone who isn't a Socialist identified as conservative. When Bill Moyers dies, the articles reporting such will almost certainly not say, "Bill Moyers, liberal commentator." They will probably say, "Bill Moyers, respected journalist." Of course, Moyers could only survive on PBS, where ratings don't matter.
Notice how you never EVER see "xxx, the liberal columnist..."?
Why do republicans make up lies rather than tell the truth?
Virginian Pilot
Byline • Margaret Edds is an editorial writer for The Virginian-Pilot, based in Richmond. E-mail her at margaret. edds@ pilotonline.com.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Page: J1
Section: Commentary
" But on PBS’ “The News-Hour,” both liberal columnist Mark Shields and conservative columnist David Brooks used a different cliché to sum up Webb: “A star is born.” "
typical
"Tony Snow, the conservative columnist..." Notice how you never EVER see "xxx, the liberal columnist..."? In this story, for example, Helen Thomas was described as a "veteran White House correspondent," even though she could not be any more left-leaning. Gordon Morse was only identified as liberal to contrast with Tony Snow. Google Bill Moyers - who is so liberal my TV slides off the left-hand side of the stand if I tune him in - and see if he is ever referred to as a liberal.
Mr. Snow was left public service to pursue more lucrative work to pay his medical bills. I hardly think trying to be responsible is greedy.
Partisanship
Oddly, I *did* notice the country leaving partisanship behind several weeks ago as we *all* prayed for Ted Kennedy and his family in dealing with his brain tumor. I have disagreed with him many times over my 50 years, but sincerely prayed for him then.
Wonder how hard it is to just say "RIP, Mr. Snow" instead of dredging up your particular grudges at this very moment??? Cheers, MGM
Sanctimony, anyone?
Tony Snow was a professional partisan. To ignore his partisanship is to ignore a major aspect of his life. He had defenders and detractors, his demise will not stop the carnival. To suggest commenting on Mr. Snow's partisanship is a character flaw is ludicrous and really partisanship in disguise.
I think that people who
I think that people who choose this opportunity to play political partisanship reveal much about themselves.
Could not have said it better myself:
"Tony Snow was very bright, very capable, very loyal. He was able to dissemble facts with such aplomb and ease, that even those few White House Press Corpses who recalled what their duties and responsibilities were, could not even manage to scratch the surface. As bald-faced liars, his talent was unsurpassed by anyone else in this Administration, even Dick Cheney, (who would have practiced lying in front of a mirror but for the fact that his image does not reflect back from them).
Tony could amuse, bemuse, insult, and twist words with such dexterity that if words were a magician's tool rather than his hands and ability to misdirect, Tony could have easily starred on stage in Vegas.
Tony's ability to deflect issues, to bald-faced lie, and when caught, to deny any more knowledge were not just superb, but sublime. A truly talented purveyor of pulp and fiction."
Robert A. Kezelis
Liberal slam
"While in the White House he stood his ground and never allowed one those liberal reporters rail road him like they're trained to do."
As typical some Republicans can't resist a liberal slam even at the death of young man. I didn't always agree with Snow but I did respect him. That's more than I can say for those Republicans who can't make a commnet unless they are making stupid comments like the one quoted here.
Tony Snow
What does greed have to do with a good man dying too young? My sincere sympathy to his wife and family. I watched Mr. Snow on TV. He was a fair, good decent man. One could sense this in him. Do not disrespect his memories by saying he chased the almighty dollar because he tried to improve himself. Shame on you. No I am not a Republican or Democrat I am an independent.
Greed
Greed ? I think Charles posted in the wrong area and has the wrong person in mind. Try reading who this person was before doing your liberal post and greed. The guy was a good man, good worker and good family man. He knew it wasn't looking good but he would never show while in the public eye. While in the White House he stood his ground and never allowed one those liberal reporters rail road him like they're trained to do. The man took shots and shot back, any president (D) or (R) would have been proud to have him on their side. But greed ???? He showed that Colon cancer could get you at anytime and it's time for many men to get over their male ego and pride and get checked.
"Greed is the code word losers use..."
"There's a backlash in America today against corporate greed, McCain told Connecticut businessmen." April 9, 2008
Most Likeable
Mr. Snow was the most likeable Press Secretary to serve in the Bush Administration. He always seemed to manage a smile even when the press corps was rude and hostile. My prayers and codolences go to his family
for their loss.
Greed
Greed is the code word losers use to explain why other more motivated and creative people are more successful than themselves.