On his second day behind the White House cameras, Tony Snow once again put his foot in his mouth. Today he suggested that ABC was a “competing network” and now the question is – competing against what?
Q Okay. But, I mean, maybe it was a terrific meeting. As far as I can tell, that has not stopped Republicans, particularly in the House, from going gangbusters against this President before they’ve had a chance to read everything, as you say they should do.
MR. SNOW: Well, as I pointed out — I mentioned this yesterday, and for — let me see if I can find my quote, because I pulled it out. Chuck Hagel, as you may recall, made a fair amount of news over the weekend when he first said that — let’s see — “Well, I want to listen to the details and I want to listen to the President,” said Senator Hagel — he said this on “This Week” on a competing network. But I would say this: I think we have to be very careful here. That’s not the role of our military, that’s not the role of our National Guard.” That’s what Senator Hagel said on Sunday.
After the President’s address, here’s what Senator Hagel said, after having a chance to read and review it: “I support everything the President said tonight.” It’s a change. I think a lot of times when people have an opportunity to look at these things — there are going to be some people, David, who are just going to disagree with the President completely and totally on this. That’s how democracy works. We don’t have a problem with that. But I think also, a number of people who have expressed skepticism, I think, once they took a fuller look at all this are going to say, okay, this addresses our concerns.
As Raw Story points out, Snow suggests he is still a member of the FOX news team. Crooks and Liars says “Tony Snow confirms: FOX News is the White House Network”. I say both responses could be true.
Now my questions are simple – since when does the White House have a “competing” network? The White House is not in the news business so they should have no competition. Has our White House been taken over by capitalism? Was this just a “slip of the tongue” for Snow (which would be two in as many days)? More importantly – Will someone from the press corps call Snow on this? That is what I want to hear.