White House Press Secretary Tony Snow’s list of gems is already impressive, but last week included a particularly noteworthy one. NBC’s David Gregory read verbatim quotes from the Iraq Study Group and asked for the White House’s response. Snow accused Gregory of being “partisan.” Gregory followed up, “Are you suggesting that I’m trying to frame this in a partisan way [by quoting the report]?” To which Snow responded, “Yes.”
This may be hard to believe — I, for one, was stunned — but Snow apologized for the exchange today.
Tony Snow must have felt a serious need to make up with the White House Press Corps after calling David Gregory “partisan” last week for quoting from the bipartisan Iraq Study Group report. Upon getting a question from Gregory on training of Iraqi troops versus direct policing by U.S. forces, Gregory prefaced his answer by first apologizing to Gregory: “I’ve thought a lot about that, and I was wrong,” Snow said. “So, I want to apologize and tell you I’m sorry for it.”
The video is on YouTube if you wanted to see for yourself.
I have to say, this was a good move. Snow came across as sincere in apologizing, and it was a classy, grown-up thing to do.
At the risk of sounding petty, I do have a couple of random thoughts, though.
One, as Eric Kleefeld noted, Snow’s conservative allies defended his behavior during last week’s exchange, and said Gregory was wrong. Any chance they might follow Snow’s fine example? Or is it more likely they’ll blast Snow for doing the right thing?
Two, earlier this week, Snow defended his original comments to Gregory and stood by his accusations of partisanship. I wonder what changed his mind?
Regardless, this White House is not known for acknowledging mistakes and apologizing, so I give Snow a lot of credit for doing the right thing. May it be the first of many such acknowledgements from the Bush gang.