Posted on 02/23/2007 10:31:08 AM PST by Dog Gone
WASHINGTON — White House spokesman Tony Snow made a startling claim earlier this month, one that shed some light on changing perceptions about the job he's doing.
During a briefing, Snow responded to a question about climate change by noting that, "We're talking about nuclear development, which is now championed by, among others, Greenpeace."
Beg your pardon?
"I think there's some Greenpeace people who are certainly advocates of nuclear power," Snow said.
As whoppers go, that was a good one. Certainly, it was news to Greenpeace.
"Golly, you know, I can't believe the White House would get that wrong," said Jim Riccio, Greenpeace nuclear policy analyst. "Greenpeace was founded as an anti-nuclear organization, and we have been fighting nuclear weapons and their evil offspring, nuclear power, ever since."
White House reporters don't expect much from Snow, which goes part of the way toward explaining why his claim about Greenpeace went largely unremarked.
It's been less than a year since Snow started the job amid a clamor of hype — including claims by Snow and others at the White House that he would be in the room for the heavy policy stuff, with a voice and a role to play.
The former Fox News personality quickly established himself as a glib and energetic adversary for the press, sometimes short on information but strong with a comeback. He learned everyone's name and all their peccadillos.
These days, whatever honeymoon goodwill he had has largely worn off — and if Snow sticks around, he still has two years to go.
Reporters complain that Snow is frequently unprepared and that he personalizes encounters — Snow recently told CNN's Ed Henry to "calm down" during an exchange over White House claims that the Iranian government was behind explosives seized in Iraq.
Most damningly, by Washington standards, many reporters covering the White House don't believe Snow has the inner-circle role or the access he was promised.
A latecomer to the administration, Snow is an outsider in a famously insular operation. He is not one of the Texans, like Dan Bartlett, counselor to the president, that Bush turns to in meetings.
For his part, Snow says that he is in the room when it's appropriate, and that his evasions and tap-dancing are sometimes intentional.
"There are going to be times when for various reasons — national security, or sometimes even the propriety of dealing with other individuals in Washington and around the world — you are, in fact, going to clam up for a little while until others have had their chance to speak," he said.
At a forum this week at the National Press Club featuring Snow and a group of White House correspondents, a New York Times reporter half-jokingly called Snow "the most useless press secretary ever."
Snow says he's not sweating it, and waves off suggestions that there is animosity on either side.
"What you see quite often at the briefings are sharp exchanges," he said. "It's not personal."
Either way, Snow has redefined the role of White House press secretary, probably forever. During last year's campaigns, Snow was in demand as a speaker at Republican events — raising money for candidates and pushing the White House message.
He has also addressed Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill — a task usually reserved for high-ranking administration officials. He said he loves the job.
"It's not only a privilege, it's a whole lot of fun," he said.
After the forum at the National Press Club, Snow stood on the edge of the stage, signing autographs for members of the public.
>>He actually called the environmental movement a bunch of scientifically ignorant nazis.
That pretty well nails it for me, and worth saying again.
I see Tony Snow has them on the ropes. Good, no amount of sanity is good enough for the press corps. I think Tony handles those idiots very well.
It is a wild, wild stretch of the imagination, but maybe, just maybe, Tony knows of people within greenpeace that have hinted or even dared to confide to him in some form or fashion that they advocate nuclear energy. Nah.
Yep. A co-founder of Greenpeace is a nuke advocate now. As usual, the MSM reporter is ignorant, did no research and is caught regurgitating Beltway CW and DNC talking points.
Respond that Snow didn't say GREENPEACE supported it, but some "Greenpeace people." And Snow wasn't PARTIALLY correct, he was absolutely correct.
I thought I had to deal with more than my share of idiots, but its clear your job takes the cake.
Oh OK so Patrick Moore IS a member of Greenpeace. Because Tony's quotes were:
"We're talking about nuclear development, which is now championed by, among others, Greenpeace."
"I think there's some Greenpeace people who are certainly advocates of nuclear power," Snow said.
So founding member means absolutely nothing. He is quoting about a current member of Greenpeace, which means someone who is currently and can speak for the organization. You are saying that Dr. Patrick Moore IS a Current member for and can speak for the current incarnation of Greenpeace! Right?
Thanks for the ping!
IMO, yes.
IMO, you need to go back to inspecting sea urchins.
So what is new here?
Bush Lied.
Cheney calls the shots.
Powell was the best SecState ever.
Rumsfeld lied.
Rumslfeld was the worst SecDef ever.
Tony Snow is the worst PressSec ever.
So what is new here?
MSM at work!
Tony Snow beat cancer.
He could kick your ass too.
He is a gentleman, however, and would never strike a lady.
I'm not sold on the idea that you are a lady. You seem more like a lying weasel.
Sleep well,
Volunteer
Pravda on the Bayou.
Thanks posting the link to that article. Patrick Moore, one of the co-founders of Greenpeace was in Fresno yesterday for a lecture in support of Nuclear Power. I didn't make it to the lecture, but heard him for an hour or so on the local talk radio show.
Brilliant comment.
Who's advocating that? Link?
You know, it is possible to believe that the environmental movement has gone over the deep end, without wanting to go back to the burning Cuyahoga, and no catalytic converters, and that sort of thing.
Care to discuss the Western wildfires and how enviro-whacko forestry practices have caused those?
Even in this " expose' " of journalistic error there is error: The White Star Line did not, nor did any of its spokesmen, EVER claim the Titanic was unsinkable. It was several REPORTERS that made the unsubstantiated declaration while the ship was under construction.
By the way, just to clarify, since you don't seem to have followed the quote stream, I was quoting words attributed to Dr. Patrick Moore, a Greenpeace founder who broke ranks with them 15 years ago.
While in looking, I couldn't find a good source for those exact words, they're not a bad paraphrase for this piece:
http://www.ccfassociation.org/moore28jan05.htm
from him.
The extremism of modern Greens is pretty apparent to most who take a close look.
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