Former Bush Press Secretary Tony Snow Dies

Tony Snow, a conservative writer and commentator who cheerfully sparred with reporters in theWhite House briefing room during a stint as President Bush's press secretary, died of colon cancer.
     
"America has lost a devoted public servant and a man of character," President Bush said in astatement from Camp David, where he was spending the weekend. "It was a joy to watch Tony at thepodium each day. He brought wit, grace, and a great love of country to his work."
     
Snow, who served as the first host of the television news program "Fox News Sunday" from 1996to 2003, would later say that in the Bush administration he was enjoying "the most exciting,intellectually aerobic job I'm ever going to have."
     
Snow was working for Fox News Channel and Fox News Radio when he replaced Scott McClellan aspress secretary in May 2006 during a White House shake-up. Unlike McClellan, who came to definecaution and bland delivery from the White House podium, Snow was never shy about playing to thecameras.
     
With a quick-from-the-lip repartee, broadcaster's good looks and a relentlessly brightoutlook - if not always a command of the facts - he became a popular figure around the country tothe delight of his White House bosses.
     
He served just 17 months as press secretary, a tenure interrupted by his second bout withcancer. In 2005 doctors had removed his colon and he began six months of chemotherapy. In March2007 a cancerous growth was removed from his abdominal area and he spent five weeks recuperatingbefore returning to the White House.
     
"All of us here at the White House will miss Tony, as will the millions of Americans heinspired with his brave struggle against cancer," Bush said.
     
Snow resigned as Bush's chief spokesman last September, citing not his health but a need toearn more than the $168,000 a year he was paid in the government post. In April, he joined CNN as acommentator.
     
As press secretary, Snow brought partisan zeal and the skills of a seasoned performer to thetask of explaining and defending the president's policies. During daily briefings, he challengedreporters, scolded them and questioned their motives as if he were starring in a TV show broadcastlive from the West Wing.
     
Critics suggested that Snow was turning the traditionally informational daily briefing into apersonality-driven media event short on facts and long on confrontation. He was the first presssecretary, by his own accounting, to travel the country raising money for Republican candidates.
     
Although a star in conservative politics, as a commentator he had not always been on thepresident's side. He once called Bush "something of an embarrassment" in conservative circles andcriticized what he called Bush's "lackluster" domestic policy.
     
Most of Snow's career in journalism involved expressing his conservative views. After earninga bachelor's degree in philosophy from Davidson College in North Carolina in 1977 and studying
economics and philosophy at the University of Chicago, he wrote editorials for The Greensboro(N.C.) Record, and The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk.
     
He was the editorial page editor of The Newport News (Va.) Daily Press and deputy editorialpage editor of The Detroit News before moving to Washington in 1987 to become editorial page editorof The Washington Times.
     
Snow left journalism in 1991 to join the administration of the first President Bush asdirector of speechwriting and deputy assistant to the president for media affairs. He then rejoinedthe news media to write nationally syndicated columns for The Detroit News and USA Today duringmuch of the Clinton administration.
     
Roger Ailes, chairman of Fox News, called Snow a "renaissance man."
     
Robert Anthony Snow was born June 1, 1955, in Berea, Ky., and spent his childhood in theCincinnati area. Survivors include his wife, Jill Ellen Walker, whom he married in 1987, and threechildren.