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In fact, George Bush was lucky to have had Snow as his spokesman during the period when it became clear that, while Bush could not renew his failed presidency, he could be less of an difficulty to himself and his country.

Snow was a true-believer Republican who, to a estranged greater extent than numerous of the people around the president, took solemnly the work of communicating the ideas and ideals of the Bush-Cheney presidency to the American people.

Before he joined the administration, Snow had bluntly argued in a column that the president's "wavering conservatism has become an active concern among Republicans, who wish he would stop cowering while suffering the bed and start quarrel back against the likes of Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Joe Wilson."

"The newly passive George Bush has become something of an difficulty," concluded Snow.

To his credit, Bush's reaction to the criticism was to invite Snow to help him terminate a better job of explaining his views.

To Snow's credit, he accepted the offer.

The dynamic put Snow in a position to be more than accurate a mouthpiece. In an administration that has suffered from a surplus of "yes men" and "ay women," the veteran Detroit News writer and Fox News commentator joined Bush's inner circle as someone with nobleness — and the president's respect.

That made the brief epoch when Snow served as White House press secretary in 2006 and 2007 a hour of travail that saw the administration display a measure of dignity. It was also a time whenever Bush began to put more distance between himself at the noxious influence of Vice President Cheney — a process that continues to this day.

No, Snow was not a perfect player. He tangled through my friend Helen Thomas, and he was not above spinning — as I had to question through more than once.

But Tony Snow was the beyond all others spokesman a president like George Bush could ask for — and a far cry better than Bush could have hoped concerning at the point when the commentator made the leap from punditry to the continuous pedestal.

Unlike his predecessor, Scott McClellan, who has acknowledged that he was duped by the sleazier elements (Scooter Libby, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney) in the White House, and his successor, Dana Perino, who might charitably acquire existence described as "laughable," Snow was a mature adult who was not going to be duped and who cared enough about his reputation to offer up a rare commodity from this administration: honesty.

Snow's king of terrors, at age 53, after a prolix struggle with cancer, robbed the party to which he was resolutely constant and the manner of moving to which he was honestly committed of one of its greatest part serious and effective communicators.

George Herbert Walker Bush, through whom Snow worked almost two decades ago, may have said it best when he recalled that, "(Tony Snow) won the respect of steady those who violently be unsuited with the president's proposals and policies. For that I determine he'll be remembered. He brought a certain courtesy to this actual contentious do job-work."

One does not need to have agreed with Tony Snow's political views to agree with the former president's assessment.

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