Tony Snow, in his own words

Monday, May 15, 2006 at 04:54 PM

Tony Snow apparently did not get off to a very good start with the White House press corps, deciding to hold his first "gaggle" in the comfort of his own, far-too-small office, not to mention that he amended the starting time, then started the conference before the new time that he had announced.

A bigger problem, at least for those of us who merely read the gaggle transcripts, is the first indication of how things are likely to go with Snow.

Excerpts from the transcript:
...
QUESTION: How are you going to make this administration more credible?

TONY SNOW: I'm not going to answer questions about credibility, other than to say that I'm eager to be here and I'm happy to be working with you.

{Ed. note: not answering questions about credibility sounds like a surefire way to enhance credibility, eh?}

...
QUESTION: Senator Leahy said yesterday that he hasn't been able to find a single member of Congress, including those who you would think would have been briefed on this, who have been briefed on this.

TONY SNOW: If you read the reporting within the American press today you will find that -- at least what has been said in the press is that people not only were fully briefed, but had no objections. I don't know. You will have to ask the appropriate members of the Senate Intelligence --

QUESTION: What are you really telling us? Are you saying the stories are untrue that we've been reading for a couple of days concerning data mining?

TONY SNOW: I'm telling you that I can't comment on the details of the stories.

QUESTION: Are there any critics on the Hill now who are yelling a great deal about this, who were actually briefed themselves?

TONY SNOW: You will have to ask the Senate committees who has been fully briefed, and you can draw your own conclusions on that basis.

{Ed. Note: Gee, sure sounds like a piece of that Deal or No Deal script, doesn't it?}
....