Tony Snow for President? Read on

Oh... and Like ABC's Nightline... Snow and PA Republicans Deemed it Important to Read the names of the Iraq War Dead

Interesting facts to look up. Is Tony Snow being groomed as a future Republican candidate/golden boy? Senate, then President? Has any other press secretary been so visible in partisan campaigning?

And what about his visit this week to Greensburg, PA (see below) where, in addition to being touted as the successor to John Warner as Senator from Virginia, he also was present for a reading of names of soldiers who died in Iraq and Afghanistan. Does anyone remember the furor caused by the very same reading on ABC's Nightline with Ted Koppel in 2004? So when is reading the names seen as being a traitor? And when it is not?

Excerpt:

Snow gives pep talk to Republicans here
Friday, February 23, 2007By James O'Toole, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"I'm going to give you a pep talk,'' White House Press Secretary Tony Snow pledged as a banquet hall of Republicans, sorely in need of one, welcomed him warmly last night.

After a grim election season for the GOP nationally and locally, the former Fox News broadcaster urged about 600 Republicans -- the largest turnout in recent memory for the party's annual Lincoln Day dinner -- to stand by their party principles in the face of political setbacks and the affects of a war whose unpopularity he acknowledged even as he defended its goals and promise.

Near the beginning of the evening, state Sen. Jane Orie, R-McCandless, struck a somber note as she read the roll of service members from Allegheny County who have given their lives in Afghanistan and Iraq. Alluding to the litany of names later, Mr. Snow praised their sacrifice and said of them, "That's not a roster of wasted lives ... that's a roster of people who remind us of why we should be proud.''

In introducing Mr. Snow, the former congresswoman tried to return the favor by touting him as a candidate for the U.S. Senate in Virginia after the retirement of Sen. John Warner. As he left the dinner early, rushing to a flight back to Washington, Mr. Snow offered a "Shermanesque'' dismissal of that possibility while saying he hadn't decided on a path for his post-White House career.

(go to http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07054/764409-85.stm for rest of article)
and... as you may remember, below...

Names of U.S. war dead read on ‘Nightline’
Storm over TV station group’s decision not to air show

Updated: 8:51 p.m. ET May 1, 2004

LOS ANGELES - There was no music, no graphic flourishes. Name followed name, photo followed photo, with two Americans’ pictures on the screen at any given moment. Some of the 721 faces looked determined. Others were smiling.

Friday night, Ted Koppel solemnly read aloud the names of American soldiers killed in the Iraq war during an unusual edition of ABC’s “Nightline.”

Uproar over list
The presentation seemed to occupy the calm eye of a storm stirred up by soldiers’ relatives, media watchdogs and Sen. John McCain after a TV station group announced its refusal to air the ABC News program, accusing it of having an anti-war slant.

When the names had been read, Koppel closed by saying, “Our goal tonight was to elevate the fallen above the politics and the daily journalism ....”

By The Associated Press, via Pittsburgh Tribune ReviewFriday, April 30, 2004

"I think it's intellectually dishonest to deny the partisan nature of this broadcast," said Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center. "Of course, it's partisan! What's the purpose? There's only one goal in mind: It's to turn public opinion against the war."

"I think it's probably fair to say that 'Nightline' is against this war in Iraq," political pundit Fred Barnes agreed.

"Koppel is drawing from a Vietnam analogy," added Barnes on Fox News Channel. "The country in 1969 was turning against the Vietnam War."

MediaSearch http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2004/cyb20040507.asp

Meanwhile, Fox News Sunday moderator Chris Wallace, a former fill-in host for Nightline, conducting interviews to promote his own Sunday tribute to what soldiers in Iraq have accomplished, charged that “The Fallen” Nightline “came out” as a political statement.

"I'll take Ted at his word that ABC did not intend it as a political statement or a ratings stunt," says Wallace.

"But when you look at all the factors -- the one-year anniversary of President Bush declaring major combat over, the fact the U.S. has just had a rough stretch there, all the promotion he did for it -- I think it came out that way."