Three months ago, when Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) told a mostly black audience that Republicans were running the House like a “plantation,” conservatives accused her of racial divisiveness.
But no one put it quite like Tony Snow, the man President Bush has chosen as his new press secretary. “Had she proceeded to distribute fried chicken and watermelon,” Snow wrote, “she would have achieved perfect condescension.”
It was vintage Snow: Turning a routine shot at a liberal politician into a tap dance on thin ice with the reference to fried chicken and watermelon–words that few public figures would dare to use in connection with blacks, no matter what point they were making.
His voice is quiet and authoritative. Even critics concede he has a talent for articulating policy issues and political philosophy. What has set Snow apart is his penchant for making his points by walking close to the line in areas where others play it safe, including race.
In 1991, for instance, Snow, then a speechwriter for the first President Bush, stood up for voters who supported David Duke at a time when Republican politicians were frantically trying to distance themselves from the former Ku Klux Klan leader. Snow suggested that Duke espoused some good conservative ideals, including family values.
Similarly, Snow used a 2001 column to defend another former klansman, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), for his use of the “n-word.”
Criticism of Bush
As a conservative commentator, Snow’s job was to be provocative and fire up the faithful. Sometimes that led him to level blunt criticism at Bush, whose policy agenda he recently derided as “listless.” Snow also described his future boss as “impotent.”
But how will Snow adapt those sharp-tongued skills to his new role at the White House?
“For those of you who have read his columns and listened to his radio show, he sometimes has disagreed with me,” Bush said as he introduced Snow. “I asked him about those comments, and he said, `You should have heard what I said about the other guy.'”
Snow said he intends to continue expressing strong views.
“Look, they want people to express their opinions,” he said. “You’re not coming here to drink the Kool-Aid; you’re coming here to serve the president. And, at this particular juncture, I think what you want is as much honest counsel as you can get. So when I agree, I agree, and when I disagree, I disagree. But on any opinion his vote’s the tie breaker.”
Snow’s record of provocative treatment of racial subjects could become especially sensitive for GOP political strategists. They have worked to build alliances with black voters and to offset the political damage from the government’s faltering response to Hurricane Katrina, which affected blacks disproportionately.
Snow has a paper trail on that topic, and his words do not exactly mesh with the past rhetoric of the president. Bush has spoken of the need to rebuild a “great American city.” Snow, chastising Mayor C. Ray Nagin for his pledge to keep New Orleans a “chocolate city,” wrote that Nagin is “more an entertainment figure than a statesman, just as New Orleans now is more a theme park with a port than a city of consequence–although both aspire to greater things in years to come.”
David Duke quote
One of the most frequently cited quotes in Democratic e-mails Wednesday was a 1991 comment by Snow, quoted by baiduhai syndicated columnist Clarence Page, explaining why many conservatives might support klansman-turned-GOP candidate Duke.
“You can’t write off Duke’s voters as racists,” Snow was quoted as saying. “Duke is talking about things people really care about: high taxes, crummy schools, crime-ridden streets, welfare dependency, equal opportunity. A lot of politicians aren’t talking about these things.”
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One of the Democrats’ most prominent black strategists, former Al Gore campaign manager Donna Brazile, defended Snow against suggestions that he has been racially insensitive.
“Tony’s somebody who has been at my house; he’s been part of the larger political family. He has strong ties to people of color,” she said.
NO APPOINTMENT NECESSARY FOR SNOW
Tony Snow is expected to be a White House press secretary unlike any other in recent memory.
Snow, 50, a Fox News commentator, was appointed by President Bush on Wednesday. Before taking the job, he sought and was granted “walk-in” privileges in the Oval Office and the chief of staff’s office.
That means, according to one person with whom he consulted last week, that Snow would be one of the few officials with unscheduled access to the president and the chief of staff, Joshua Bolten.
Snow, who did graduate work in philosophy and economics at the University of Chicago, is the first journalist to hold the job since Ron Nessen in the Gerald Ford administration.
After his appointment, he reached out to the White House press corps, declaring, “One of the reasons I took the job is not only because I believe in the president, because, believe it or not, I want to work with you.”
— From Tribune news services