Having watched the clip, via ThinkProgress, I suspect Bill O’Reilly was kidding, but am I the only one who finds his eliminationist rhetoric kind of creepy?
For those of you who can’t watch clips online, Tony Snow mentioned that he’s interested in writing a book about how to deal with the unexpected, building off his experiences fighting cancer. It prompted O’Reilly to offer some advice.
O’REILLY: You know what you can do with all the respect?
SNOW: Yes.
O’REILLY: You can combine how I deal with cancer with how I deal with the White House press corps. Because they’re both insidious, invasive. They both have to be wiped out. And you know, you see the theme that I’m getting at here?
SNOW: Well, maybe I could thread it into.
O’REILLY: You know, you put little microbes and David Gregory’s face on the cover. You know, it’s huge. This is a high concept deal, I’m giving you, man.
SNOW: Oh, man. I’ll tell you what. I’ll let you have that one.
Snow was laughing, and O’Reilly was smirking, and maybe I’m overly sensitive on this, but like I said, it seemed creepy.
Other highlights from the interview:
News on Snow’s health is encouraging:
O’REILLY: Hi, Snow. First of all, our viewers want to know about your health. How are you feeling?
SNOW: Feeling great. The cancer right now is in remission, but I’m still on chemo. Believe it or not, I had a chemo session a couple of days ago. And I take pills five days a week.
O’Reilly was preoccupied with David Letterman’s opinion of him:
O’REILLY: All right. Letterman, you were on Letterman last night.
SNOW: I was on Letterman.
O’REILLY: See you pal? See, he doesn’t like me at all.
SNOW: Oh.
O’REILLY: He gives me a hard time.
SNOW: No, no, it’s just.
O’REILLY: Did you tell him I said hello?
SNOW: I did.
Snow may get involved in the presidential race:
O’REILLY: Are you going to try to be a partisan Republican in this? Are you going to try to get a Republican elected in `08?
SNOW: I very well may.
O’REILLY: Really?
SNOW: I’m not going to campaign, at least at this juncture, I don’t have any horses in this race. So I’m not supporting any candidates. The one thing I know to do between now and the races, talk about stuff I care about. I haven’t really figured out what I’m going to do in terms of whether there’s going to be extensive direct partisan activity or not.
Snow may return to TV, and O’Reilly’s worried about the competition.
O’REILLY: I always think back. I was the guy hammering you because of that. Do you remember? Put yourself back six months ago. That was me, Snow. All right, any chance you come back to FOX News?
SNOW: Could be. Like I want to – I’m trying to get a radio TV piece in the career.
O’REILLY: Great, the mix.
SNOW: Yes. I just don’t know yet.
O’REILLY: But anything could happen.
SNOW: Anything can happen.
O’REILLY: But you can’t go over to CNN. I mean, that’s the devil over there. You can’t. You know. You’re a religious guy. You can’t go on into the pagan thrown over there…. If they put you at 8:00 up against me, Snow, it’s going to be bloody. You know what I’m talking about?
Lovely.