Posted on 04/23/2006 10:45:50 PM PDT by xjcsa
At the George W. Bush campaign headquarters in Austin, Texas, in 1999, policy director Josh Bolten was a low-key Washingtonian in a building full of brash Texans. He assembled a best-and-brightest team with résumés bristling with brand names like his own--Princeton, Stanford, Goldman Sachs. "He used to brag that he had all these Supreme Court clerks from Harvard working for him," recalled a campaign veteran. Bolten was happy to let others preen in meetings while he waited to make a killer point at the end. He has thrived by showing, very quietly, that he is indispensable. Now as President Bush's second chief of staff, he is suddenly in the spotlight. Last week he appeared before large groups of worried aides in a White House theater, where Bush occasionally holds press conferences, to convince them that a few discomfiting changes, along with a lot of harder, smarter work, could turn around a second term that has disappointed so many of them.
--snip--
5 COURT THE PRESS. Bolten is extremely guarded around reporters, but he knows them and, unlike some of his colleagues, is not scared of them. Administration officials said he believes the White House can work more astutely with journalists to make its case to the public, and he recognizes that the President has paid a price for the inclination of some on his staff to treat them dismissively or high-handedly. His first move, working with counselor Dan Bartlett, was to offer the press secretary job to Tony Snow of Fox News radio and television, a former newspaper editorial writer and onetime host of Fox News Sunday who served George H.W. Bush as speechwriting director. Snow, a father of three and a sax player, is the bona fide outsider that Republican allies have long prescribed for Bushworld and would bring irreverence to a place that hasn't seen a lot of fun lately. "White Houses are weird places," he told a 2004 panel on White House speechwriting. Snow had his colon removed after he was found to have cancer last year, but his doctors have approved the possibility of his taking the grueling post.
Thanks for the ping!
I have an early morning meeting at work in 25 minutes- ARG!
I will pop in just as soon as I can.....on the Tony thread!
I will be very sad if he takes the slot to miss him in the 9-12 EDT slot. But I'll be happy for the country. There will be no one better than Tony if they let him do what he can do so well. And, maybe they'll move John Gibson to that slot. He's pretty good.
Thanks a lot for yelling "INCOMING" ! Not.
Flute - saxophone - when you are as accurate as Time - what's the difference?
I'm fairly certain that Tony is a jazz flutist, that is why he likes Ian Anderson.
I like it too...but I just realized I had a typo in it...fixed.
Thanks for the ping!
I have no idea what you think he deserves for using his name on FR. In fact, today is the anniversary of his joining FR. He's been a member since 1998.
And you?
Snow is above thinking only about himself. He would take this job to serve the country. And kudos for him doing this!
If you don't think the media and democrats (scum of the earth that they are) would use his membership here to tarnish him, you are looney. I'm not saying it's right, I'm just telling you what would happen.
Serve his country? By answering Helen Thomas' questions??? He would serve a greater purpose by poop scooping up Barneys messes on the White House lawn.
Congratulations on the offer you received to be (what's the title?) the President's spokesman. I hope it is true that you have accepted. I'm looking forward to you looking them in the eye and speaking "truth to media." I hope you can get across the message that the enemy is watching all the antics, dissension and opposition. We are at war, and need to stand behind our President. I hope you continue to lurk on FR, even if you can no longer have an active role.
You'll do your usual stellar job. :-)
I've always looked to you as a rock in the maelstrom that is Washington politics. How you keep an even keel is beyond me.
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