Saturday, July 12, 2008

RIP, Tony

Today, I was genuinely saddened to read that Tony Snow has lost his battle with colon cancer and died at the age of only 53. I liked Tony. I really had hoped he would be able to beat this thing back for many more years, periodically bringing his signature folksy-yet-sophisticated style to scores more analytical guest spots to come.

If Ari Fleischer possessed an entertainingly oily charm (think Piven from "Entourage"); and Dana Perino presents a crisp, efficient, generally inoffensive demeanor (and is invariably quite snappily dressed); and Scott....well..there were the Lou Costello jokes...Anyway, Tony Snow was far and away the best Press Secretary this media-challenged Administration could have hoped for. He would never shrink from a scrap with the press when they got out of line, but he never seemed bitter or vindictive...not even with Helen Thomas!

I can't help thinking that if it had been Tony up there during those years that Milquetoast McLellan stammered and stumbled our way into utter incoherence of message, we might have been able to get far more done (and not bled so profusely in the mid-term elections). I had kind of hoped he would convalesce to the point that he might even serve in a McCain press office (I could see a certain affinity of temperaments).

He was appreciated almost as much as he will be missed.

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