Snow storm

The Swamp (Chicago Tribune's blog) has the DSCC snowflake (stretch the term) on Tony Snow:

Considering how critical he has been of George Bush and his handling of fiscal spending, security, and domestic policy, it will be curious to see how Tony Snow steps into his role as White House spokesman. The following is a short compilation of some of Snow’s greatest hits on George Bush and the White House as well as a collection of his more memorable quotes on a number of social issues, including a defense of David Duke and his claim that “racism isn't that big a deal anymore.”

ON GOP/BUSH ADMINISTRATION

2006: Snow Said Bush Looks “Guilty.” In light of Bush’s mishandling of Hurricane Katrina, the Dubai ports deal, and plummeting approval ratings, Snow said “…you ever seen those guilty guys in a court case, you know, the guilty guys are sitting passively? That's what the president looks like…” [Fox News, 3/4/06]

2005: Snow Said Bush Looks Impotent. “No president has looked this impotent this long when it comes to defending presidential powers and prerogatives.” [Snow Column, 9/30/05]

2006: Snow Said Bush “Lost Control” of Budget. In his syndicated column, Snow wrote, “A Republican president and a Republican Congress have lost control of the federal budget and cannot resist the temptation to stop raiding the public fisc. 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.” [Snow Column, 3/17/06]

2005: Snow Called Bush an “Embarrassment” Following the Democratic electoral wins in 2005, Snow said that “…George Bush has become something of an embarrassment.” [Snow Column, 11/11/05]

2006: Snow Criticized Bush’s Domestic Policy Commenting on Bush’s State of the Union Address, Snow called Bush’s domestic policy “listless.” [Snow Column, 2/3/06]

2000, 2003: Snow Found Fault with Bush’s Fiscal Policies. Snow has sharp words for Bush on his lack of “spending restraint.” In 2003, Tony Snow said, “When it comes to federal spending, George W. Bush is the boy who can’t say no. In each of his three years at the helm, the president has warned Congress to restrain its spending appetites, but so far nobody has pushed away from the table mainly because the president doesn’t seem to mean what he says.” In 2000, Snow said Bush “will shovel money into programs that enjoy undeserved prestige, such as Head Start.” [The Detroit News, 12/28/03; Snow Column, 8/25/00 ]

2000: Snow Took Bush to Task On His Grammar. In 2000, Snow said Bush got “his father’s syntax. At one point last week, he stunned a friendly audience by barking out absurd and inappropriate words, like a soul tortured with Tourette’s.” In the same column, Snow wrote that “The English Language has become a minefield for the man, whose malaprops make him the political heir not of Ronald Reagan, but Norm Crosby.” [Snow Column, 8/25/00]

2004: Snow Criticized Bush’s CIA. Snow said, “We have now got a CIA that is largely incapable of putting human assets, spies on the ground, and seeing things. And furthermore, there's a huge deficit of people who can even speak languages, such as Arabic, to be able to blend in with the local culture.” [The O'Reilly Factor, 7/9/04]

ON SOCIAL ISSUES

2003: “Racism Isn’t That Big a Deal Anymore.” In October 2003, Snow defended Rush Limbaugh’s controversial comments that Donovan McNabb was overrated and that reporters are disposed towards black quarterbacks. “The comment wasn't racist,” Snow said, “but that did not stop political opportunists from accusing Rush of bias.” Snow added, “Racism isn't that big a deal anymore.” [“Fox News Sunday,” 10/5/03, emphasis added]

1991: Snow Defended David Duke. In 1991, then-White House speechwriter Tony Snow defended former KKK leader David Duke, 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.” [Chicago Tribune, 11/20/91]

2005: Snow Thinks Calling Racism Systemic Is “Making Excuses” In June 2005, Snow said that calling racism and poverty systemic is “making excuses” for cultural problems in the U.S. rather than trying to understand the situation of the poor. “When you say systemic, it sounds like you're trying to make excuses…in other words, it sounds like you're giving people a copout.” [The O’Reilly Factor, 6/30/05]

1999: Snow Said Keyes “Cries Racism” Too Often. In a discussion on the Republican presidential primary candidates, Snow accused Republican Alan Keyes of “crying racism” too often. Snow said, “He does have a penchant for crying racism … When he was at the State Department and he was the hot – the higher-ups there were not listening to him, he blew up and accused them of racism as well.” [Fox Special Report With Brit Hume; 12/3/99]

1998: Snow Loves The “Least Politically Correct” Holiday. In 1998, Tony Snow commented that he loves Thanksgiving because it is “the least politically correct” holiday. Snow said, “I love Thanksgiving. It is the least politically correct of all our holidays. It celebrates the old-fashioned bourgeois family. It praises God, who's creator non grata in most of our public schools, and it bespeaks our national faith in higher truths and greater goods, as well as in our neighbors and ourselves.” [Fox News Sunday, 10/30/98]

2000: Snow Knows of No Examples of Wrongful Execution. Snow said on Fox News that he has “never heard anybody come up with proof of anybody since 1976 who's been executed wrongly.” [Fox News: The Edge with Paula Zahn, 6/21/00]

1995: Snow Said Anti-Smoking Campaign “Federal Nannyism” Tony Snow wrote in a 1995 USA Today column that the government’s anti-smoking effort was “federal nannyism.” [USA Today, 4/14/95]