Tony Snow (1955-2008)

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Tony Snow -- former Fox News host and Bush press secretary -- has died. He was 53.

Like many who dislike Bush and the Republicans and Fox News, I never much liked Snow. Or, let me be more precise, I never much cared for him in his official capacities as Fox host and Bush mouthpiece. (Of course, I do not know what he was like in person, but he seemed to be a very likeable man, and those who knew him spoke highly of him, and are doing so now -- make sure to check out the reaction at Memeorandum.)

And yet, even as Bush mouthpiece, spewing spin as the spokesperson for a failed presidency mired in lies and delusions, there always seemed to be something genuinely classy and upright about him. Perhaps it was because he was a smooth broadcaster who was comfortable in front of the cameras and chummy with his ex-colleagues, the White House press corps, but he stood out well above Bush's other press secretaries, the arrogant, smarmy Ari Fleischer, the in-way-over-his-head Scott McClellan, and the amateurish, cartoonish Dana Perino. Through his entire time at the White House, I may rarely have liked or appreciated what Snow was saying in defence of his boss, but at the very least I respected him in a way that I haven't most other members of the administration.

But let's put politics and partisanship aside. It is a sad loss and a sad day. Tony Snow, from everything I could tell a good and generous man, will be missed.