It’s all but official — because it’s now being leaked. CNN reports:
Sources close to the White House said Monday that Fox anchor Tony Snow is likely to accept the job as White House press secretary, succeeding Scott McClellan.
The sources said they expect him to announce his decision within the next few days.
A source familiar with the discussions said Monday that newly appointed Chief of Staff Josh Bolten asked Snow to make a decision by early this week.
Two sources familiar with the discussions said Bolten wanted to fill the post this week, as early as Tuesday.
Sources familiar with Snow’s deliberations said he has been focusing on family, finances and his health, as he battles colon cancer.
Neither Snow nor the White House would comment.
Sources familiar with the matter said the White House approached the Fox anchor several weeks ago. Snow then met with Bolten and other officials at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Snow serves as a political analyst for Fox News Channel, which he joined in 1996.
The White House will likely be praised and hammered for this decision. Snow was a speechwriter for the first President George Bush, an unabashedly conservative commentator, and an anchor for Fox News. That’ll generate praise (in some quarters) and condemnation (in some quarters).
But he does have a solid journalism background. And there has long been an incestuous relationship between the press and the political realm. Networks have employed people who worked for Democratic politicos (Tim Russert, Jeff Greenfield, Bill Moyers, George Stephanopoulos) and Republican politicos (Diane Sawyer and even Joe Scarborough, who was one himself).
The difference this time:
- Snow would be taking the White House job after a high profile and lucrative career in print and broadcast (including a radio talk show). He’s going FROM the journalism/talk realm INTO the the political world, versus the usual course (from the political world into the media).
- He has enormous “stage presence” compared to most spokespeople. It’s unlikely he’ll ever look like he’s sweating. He knows how to play to a camera and use a microphone.
Political Wire points to a highly significant quote by former White House adviser (to several presidents) David Gergen (someone who is the definition of “gravitas”) that’s in a post in Hotline On Call:
Tony Snow does have the leverage that neither of his predecessors would have had. And that is, if he walks out on them because they’re not open enough, it would be hugely devastating to the administration, so, that he, unlike Scott McClellan, can go in and say, gentlemen, this isn’t good. The press has a legitimate need here. We have got to give it to them. And they know that the moment he walks out the door and disgusted, if they are really totally closed or they lie or whatever, that is a bleak, bleak day at the White House. His predecessors never had that leverage.
There will be some who will automatically say that’ll never happen. But it seems unlikely Snow would want to toss away all of his credibility — so Gergen’s point is well taken.
The key question is this:
Will Tony Snow go out there and make the administration’s case, perhaps take a beating from the press, but still emerge with his integrity intact?
Or will he one day leave the job with the status of a Ron Ziegler or a Scott McClellan — more Tony Schmo than Tony Snow?
BUT THAT’S JUST OUR VIEW. HERE’S A CROSS-SECTION OF LINKS TO OPINION ON SNOW’S IMPENDING APPOINTMENT:
Crooks & Liars, Making News, Ed Driscoll, The Gun Toting Liberal, Firedoglake, Betsy’s Page, Respublica, The Carpetbatter Report, Pre-Emptive Karma, Lawrence Kudlow, The Barking Dingo, Loaded Mouth, Jazz Shaw, Manimalia, Shakespeare’s Sister, Thoughts Online, The Flack, The Anonymous Liberal, Think Progress, Decision ’08, Daily Kos, Balloon Juice
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.