Snow Job

White House Hotheads

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Friday, June 16, 2006; 1:14 PM

Snow on the Rocks

We'll start with Tony Snow, who unleashed what may well have been the most inappropriate answer of his rocky one-month tenure at yesterday's briefing .

Here's a question Snow certainly knew was coming:

"Q Tony, American deaths in Iraq have reached 2,500. Is there any response or reaction from the President on that?"

And here is Snow's initial response:

"It's a number, and every time there's one of these 500 benchmarks people want something."

Yup, they sure do want something. Like maybe some sensitivity to the loss of life from the man speaking on behalf of the White House, for starters.

Snow also apologized yesterday for an earlier stumble: confusing one black congresswoman (Sheila Jackson-Lee, who attended a White House meeting last week) -- with another (Cynthia McKinney, who wasn't even there).

But more importantly, Snow yesterday amply illustrated his emerging -- and highly irritating -- modus operandi: When he doesn't want to answer a question, which is often the case, he either pleads ignorance or gets argumentative -- or both. And an increasingly common tactic: Demanding that reporters define the terms that he himself has just used.

Here's one exchange from yesterday, with Peter Baker of The Washington Post:

"Q Tony, the investigation of Karl Rove is now over. Why is it, then, inappropriate for the President of the White House, three years later, to finally give us some sort of explanation or assessment, judgment, of Karl Rove's actions when it had nothing to do with the Libby trial?

"MR. SNOW: Because, as you know, there is -- well, they may have. There is talk that he may be called . . ."

Rove played an important role in the leak of Valerie Plame's identity, but publicly denied it through then-press secretary Scott McClellan and in television interviews.

Pressing on, Baker noted that "Scott McClellan has nothing to do with the Libby trial, [Rove's] conversation with ABC News has nothing to do with the Libby trial.

"MR. SNOW: Well, that's fine. I will continue my statement first. I can't give you any texture or background on the Scott/Karl stuff, because I wasn't here. But the President made it pretty clear that a lot of this stuff -- and as you know, Peter, once you get up on the stand, and Karl may be called to the stand -- they can ask about anything.

"And so it is our view that we're simply not going to get involved in making comments on something that may be brought to trial, when Scooter Libby is still under indictment and is going to go to trial with the special prosecutor."

Baker of course was correct. His question had nothing to do with the Libby trial. But he moved on:

"Q Let me ask a general question then. In 2000, the President said it wasn't enough to simply not be indicted in the White House, that he had a higher ethical standard. Is that, in fact, still the ethical standard --

"MR. SNOW: Yes.

"Q -- or, in fact, should we interpret from his comments yesterday that as long as you're not indicted, everything is fine?

"MR. SNOW: Apparently, you've indicted Karl.

"Q No, I'm asking a question.

"MR. SNOW: And yes, the answer is, the ethical standard still applies.

"Q And what is the ethical standard?

"MR. SNOW: You tell me."

But the capper had to be Snow's obstinate obfuscation of the administration's position on permanent military bases in Iraq -- a highly contentious and significant issue.

According to Agence France Presse , Snow had addressed the issue quite directly at the off-camera morning gaggle: "At a morning exchange with reporters, spokesman Tony Snow said it was 'wrong' to say that the United States planned to keep troops in Iraq forever, even after Iraqi security forces are up and running.

"Prodded about the construction of permanent military facilities in the war-torn country, Snow replied: 'No permanent bases. Don't have permanent bases anywhere.' "

Sounds clear, huh? But when Hearst columnist and White House gadfly Helen Thomas brought the issue up again at the briefing, Snow was pugnatiatuis and equivocal.

"Q Would you like to reaffirm what you said earlier today, that the U.S. wants no permanent bases in Iraq?

"MR. SNOW: Well, I think -- let me -- because -- can you define what a permanent base is?"

At the end of the exchange, the administration's position was as unclear as ever.

Accountability is for other people.