New White House press secretary Tony Snow never thought it would be this hard. Unlike most press secretaries, Snow had little time to prepare for the job. He thought he could tame the rowdy press corps, but during his first press gaggle, held in his office, he did nothing of the sort.
The LA Times reports:
In a chaotic and contentious first outing — a dress rehearsal of sorts for his first televised briefing Tuesday — Snow was asked about the Bush administration's domestic spying program, about the reports that it had collected vast data on Americans' phone-calling habits and whether all this would sink Bush's nominee for CIA director.
Snow said he either could not or did not want to answer many of the questions, much in the same way his predecessor, Scott McClellan, used repetitious talking points to deflect increasingly aggressive queries from the news media.
To make matters worse, Snow's roomy office turned out to be too small to accommodate the more than 60 reporters in attendance.
"I had this wonderful idea that this would be nice and collegial and relaxed," Snow conceded in his office, throwing up his hands and looking almost defeatist. "But it obviously at this point is just a mess."
The daily encounter with journalists, Snow found, is likely to be a far cry from the talk radio and TV gabfests that he had presided over until recently as a Fox News commentator.
Helen Thomas, as expected, confronted him with a loaded question.
How will Snow restore credibility to the White House? he was asked by veteran correspondent Helen Thomas.
"I'm not going to answer questions about credibility, other than to say that I'm eager to be here and I'm happy to be working with you," Snow said.
Years of broadcast experience, Snow quickly learned, are not necessarily preparation for having a person's every word scrutinized.
When reporters asked about Bush's support for his housing secretary, who made recent controversial comments, Snow replied, "Well, at this point the president is supporting Alphonso Jackson."
"At this point?" a reporter asked, wondering if Snow was tossing out a hint. In fact, as with several topics facing the new press secretary, he conceded that he simply did not have the full picture.
"Look," he said, "again, you're getting me ahead of my brief. I don't know any more than I've told you."
