Yeah, yeah, yeah, Tony Snow blah blah blah. Everbody's all excited, (except this guy,) waiting to see which member of the press pool "believe it or not I want to work with you," he says -- get's cussed out first. But what I'm really interested in, is the cussing out already going on among the right wing faithful.
I've always had perfectly pleasant dealings with Tony Snow, and respect his commitment to genuine conservatism and to fighting the war on Islamist terror. I also agree with him that this president has "lost control of the federal budget and cannot resist the temptation to stop raiding the public fisc." I agree that "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." I agree with him that "when it comes to federal spending, George W. Bush is the boy who can’t say no." I agree with Tony that "on the policy side, Bush has become a classical dime-store Democrat." I agree with him that
No president has looked this impotent this long when it comes to defending presidential powers and prerogatives. Nearly 57 months into his administration, President Bush has yet to veto a single bill of any type. The only other presidents never to issue a veto - William Henry Harrison and James Garfield - died within months of taking office. The budget has grown nearly 50 percent on his watch, and he is vying to become the most free-spending president ever. To date, he has not asked Congress to rescind even a penny in profligate spending (even Bill Clinton requested more than $8 billion in rescissions, and Ronald Reagan sought upward of $80 billion).
But I'm not going to stand in front of the press and defend this record now, am I?
Ouch! So how do you respond, guy with a hard to pronounce name, from RedState.org?
It's called being a professional, Andrew. It's called calling them as you see them when you are a member of the press while at the same time bearing in mind that you had better have an overwhelmingly fantastically good reason--beyond the "our critics are our friends" line Tony Snow has taken towards the President--to refuse a call to service from the highest ranking elected official in the land. It's called taking a position of great and solemn responsibility without compromising your principles, but rather taking those principles into the public sphere and showing that you are more than a mere critic, that on the contrary, you are someone willing to personally place into effect the change that you are calling for.
I have critiqued George W. Bush and his policies a fair amount recently. But critiquing a President is not an automatic bar to serving in that President's Administration; especially not if that President has promised to listen and to respect the opinions a critic would be willing to give voice to in private counsel. I assume that is the promise he gave to Tony Snow and I would expect no less of an arrangement between any President and any Press Secretary (it's fairly easy to assume that if Tony Snow didn't get this kind of promise and didn't feel comfortable with it, he would have been more than content to work banker's hours while taking much more to the bank as a major media personality than he will as the White House Press Secretary). And here is the puzzlement: Up until now, one of the chief criticisms of the Bush White House was that it lived "in a bubble" and didn't pay attention to its critics. Now it's hiring one of them and what is the response?
Snark?
And that's it?
Yaaawn....! Sorry, but I've got to give this round to Sullivan. Whingeing about how honored Snow must be to work for a prez who really, really is gona listen to him, gosh darnit is weak, weak WEAK! Hell, I'm just surprised to learn that anybody who worked for Fox News has ever criticized the president. Can't they throw you out of the cult for that?
Oh, and you've got to love AOL's take on Snow's slick move, courtesy of ThinkP:
And he was right. (Though as our little SnowBunny said today, "you should have seen what I said about the other guy...) Oh, yeah, I can't wait for that first press conference...
<%
dim done
done = request.form("done")
if done = "" then
done = "No"
%>
Tell a friend
<%
Else
if request.form("done") = "Yes" then
'sets variables
dim email, sendmail
email = request.form("email")
Set sendmail = Server.CreateObject("CDONTS.NewMail")
'put the webmaster address here
sendmail.From = "webmaster@aspbasics.com"
'The mail is sent to the address entered in the previous page.
sendmail.To = email
'Enter the subject of your mail here
sendmail.Subject = "Check out this website"
'send a specific page or send a site url
dim url
'url = Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")
url = "http://www.aspbasics.net"
'This is the content of the message.
sendmail.Body = "Site recommendation from a friend!" & _
vbCrlf & vbCrlf & "A friend has sent you this email and thought you would should check out this site." & _
vbCrlf & url & vbCrlf
'this sets mail priority.... 0=low 1=normal 2=high
sendmail.Importance = 1
sendmail.Send 'Send the email!
response.redirect Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")
'Response.write ("Sent to ") & email
End if
End if
%>
"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
And he was right. (Though as our little SnowBunny 
