Tests show Tony Snow’s cancer has returned

March 27, 2007

Awful news about White House Press Secretary [tag]Tony Snow[/tag].

White House press secretary Tony Snow, who has become the face of the Bush presidency over the last year, has cancer again.

Snow’s deputy, Dana M. Perino, broke into tears at an off-camera briefing this morning as she announced that the cancer has spread to his liver. Doctors discovered it when they operated on Snow on Monday to remove a small growth that had developed in his lower abdomen.

The reports I’ve seen note that it’s unclear when or whether Snow will return to the briefing room. Snow is, however, apparently in good spirits — even going so far as to jokingly give Perino talking points on his own condition.

I’ve read every transcript of every briefing Snow has led, and as regular readers know, I’m not shy about taking him to task when I disagree with his remarks.

But people obviously come before politics. I’m pulling for him, I applaud his courage and tenacity, and I extend my best wishes to him and his family.

Tony, if you see this, I have a good-natured message for you: Get back to work — so I can go back to telling everyone how wrong I think you are.

March 27, 2007 at 2:20 pm

Tony, if you see this, I have a good-natured message for you: Get back to work — so I can go back to telling everyone how wrong I think you are.
Agreed. All my best.

My 40 year old sister in law was just diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer that has spread to her liver. We’re all devastated for her. The odds aren’t good in Tony Snow’s case, either.

I wish he and Elizabeth Edwards much luck – I think they’ll need it.

Even though Snow’s on “the other side”, I hope he beats the odds.

Best wishes to the guy’s family.

Sorry, that’s as generous as I can be to a guy who obviously thinks his job is to fool people into thinking a bunch of criminals aren’t really criminals.

Well put, Steve.

(I’m sure Howie Kurtz will be disappointed to learn that the vast, vast majority of liberal bloggers and commenters aren’t evil doers cheering for the death of those they spar with politically.)

I’ve never like him either, but I wish him the best of good luck with his fight against cancer. It’s a tough thing, and he’s a pretty young man.

I think this is very very very bad for Tony Snow. Liver cancer has a very low survival rate.

Looks like the WH will be looking for a new press secretary.

I’m sorry and I apologize if I offend anyone, but they’ve got A LONG way to go before they even the score, considering how many Americans they’ve sent to their deaths.

I have to agree with your sentiments. Even before they announced his surgery, you could see this was weighing on his mind when he really spoke heartfelt words about Elizabeth Edwards, displaying one of the rare moments of sincerity I’ve ever seen from him since he took the post.

Classy post CB. While this is a terrible way to be reminded of it, humanity trumps politics. Best wishes to Mr. Snow.

Politics can feel personal, and sometimes it gets personal, but most people park their politics at the door when something like cancer strikes, because we all know that it could just as easily be us that gets that devastating news. That was evident in Snow’s remarks when it was announced that Elizabeth Edwards was facing a recurrence of her breast cancer.

My heart goes out to him, and to his family.

Maybe something good can come out of this too, maybe Bush can reconsider his recent cuts to cancer funding?

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/01/18/bush-cancer/

The total budget for the National Cancer Institute has increased $1.2 billion since 2001. But as ABC News’s Medical Editor pointed out last night, “most of that occurred in those early years under a Clinton initiative. The budget was actually cut last year and the projected budget for this year is to be cut even further.”

Bush’s 2007 budget proposed cutting funding for the National Cancer Institute by $40 million.

Would it be too macabre to ask Dana Perino about cancer funding levels? Tony Snow might have plenty of money to fight his cancer with, but most of the rest of us sure don’t.

Former Dan – Snow has colon cancer that has spread to his liver; he does not have a primary liver cancer.

I take it personal when OUR public servants conspire to hijack OUR democracy. SHINEY, SHINEY people, don’t put it past them that Snowjob is yet just another shiny bauble. You haven’t seen the Dr’s report, and neither have I. For all we know the “small growth” was a hemmorhoid.

Having seen its ravages firsthand, I wouldn’t wish cancer on anybody. I hope Tony caught it early enough to come through the other side of this battle with his health and spirit intact.

In the WaPo article, the writer mentions, “it was unclear when or whether he would be able to return to work.” How dare that be printed! According to Rush, this is a time to be talking about God, not work! At least Tony won’t have to suffer the broadsides from the right wing noise machine that Elizabeth Edwards did, and the left has no comparable inhuman attack machine desiring to kick him while he’s down. Good for him.

When Lee Atwater was dying of cancer, he repudiated the poisoned atmosphere he had created in modern politics. Now I don’t know if TS is dying or not, nor do I wish him any ill in this manner; but I wonder if being forced to confront his mortality will have him re-evaluating his achievements as well.

Thousands of better men and women than him are in the same boat. Many of those people are without health insurance and support systems largely because of the policies of Snow’s boss for whom he lies. My sympathies to all people in this situation.

@Dale #16 Thanks, that was what I was trying to say but the red I’ve been seeing the past 2 weeks was keeping me from saying it.

Is it wrong to wish Tony Snow well and a full recovery but for the cancer to instead kill that part of him that thinks it is OK to push lies upon lies and which prohibit him from seeing the consequences of the lies he voluntarily pushes and the policies propped up by those lies?

I sure hope no one posts any mean-spirited sentiments here, which do nothing other than give the right blogopshere anything to put on their bull’s eye like they did with Huffington.

But even beyond that, CB is right–Tony Snow might be mistaken about many things, callously cynical about others, but I certainly hope he recovers from this illness.

Anne,

Either way, primary or metastatic liver cancer does not have a high survival rate.

Bugboy raises an interesting point which I believe a desperate administration wouldn’t hesitate one minute to exploit.

Right now they are on the ropes, and this close to having their top legal dude impeached. If/when Gonzo falls they will have to install a decent AG rather than a hack. And that could open a huge can of worms. Maybe the last can of worms.

Although it won’t buy them much time, Snow’s diagnosis is awfully good timing for them. And if the “naval exercises” spark a conflict with Iran, we will have the mother of all distractions to deal with. Gonzo will be safe. Maybe Snow is buying them the time between now and the start of the Iran war.

I hope the “kids playing soccer” can keep their eye on the ball, but I doubt it. We need Bush out, because people like Tony Snow get cancer every day, and if his party stays in place a lot more people will die.

Cancer is a killer and my prayers and wishes are with anyone struck by this terrible disease. I lost a cousin to breast cancer when she was in her mid thirties with two small children. It was very similar. She had the primary tumor removed and a couple of years later it was back and had spread to the liver. She lasted seven months and suffered terribly with ungodly kemo treatments. Disease is the great equalizer;. we all have to face our mortality. My prayers are with Snow, and Elizebeth Edwards, and several of my friends who are suffering in similar situations. One of my former students just lost her mother over the weekend to Cancer. It really is too bad that Bush needs to cut the funding to prevent such a widespread killer. I thought we declared a war on cancer before we declared a war on drugs. I wonder what happened to that one?

Tests revealed today that Uncle Sam has cancer. It has metastized throughout the body politic. It is called Bushlymphoma. It has moved through the justice system, the military, the GSA, FEMA, and the white house. Recent therapy has removed much of it from the Congress, but the battle for the life of Uncle Sam is still on. Hopefully he’ll recover and return to politics.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery, Mr. Snow.

RacerX spotlights what I was thinking (however macabre): this Administration has cut funding for cancer research, and we all know about the stem cell veto (Bush’s only one). Who knows what stem cell research could have discovered by now? Ask Laura Bush regarding stem cells, who famously (and irredemmably bone-headedly) stated (paraphrasing), “it was wrong for (Michael J.) Fox and others to suggest that increased support for embryonic stem cell research could lead to cures for Alzheimer’s and other diseases.”

Yep, let’s not even find out, then. Good plan.

I have to admit I really had to think about it for several minutes, since I really really really dislike the guy, but in the end the fact I am dealing with a potentially similar but not exactly the same problem leads me to say I wish him well about that. My dad died of liver cancer and it is not a nice way to go – it’s very painful.

One might think on another level that his karma just ran over his dogma.

While I wish him well on his return to private life to fight this, I won’t miss dealing with him publicly.

@Dale #16 Thanks, that was what I was trying to say but the red I’ve been seeing the past 2 weeks was keeping me from saying it.
Comment by Bugboy

Sure. I understand the anger and the suspicion. The Republicans are always doing what they accuse us of doing.

I have to agree — as much as I want to reach the TV or radio and smack the crap out of him most of the time, wouldn’t wish this on anyone and hope for a speedy recovery.

Best of luck, Mr. Snow … and I hope you have an epiphany during the process that causes you to leave the dark side.

🙂

I don’t think for one minute that BushCo is going to get a break because Tony Snow has cancer. To think so would be to assume that we can be that easily distracted, and that’s just not going to happen.

Dana Perino will step in for now, and the wheels of the lying and dissembling machine will roll on; Snow will become a footnote to the whole thing.

I don’t presume to understand how someone – anyone – can stand before the media and the American people every day and try to to spin gold out of straw, and I don’t understand how they can believe in what they are saying. I don’t know how they sleep at night knowing that what they say and what they do so negatively affects so many people – how people with all the advantages life can offer can be so selfish when it comes to those who don’t have those advantages. Do I think Tony Snow has cancer because of the kind of things he believes and does? If I did, I would be forced to think that my Dad, who was a Republican all his life, got pancreatic cancer because of his political beliefs – and since my Dad was a good a man as you could find, that would be a pretty tough connection to make.

And to further suggest that this is some kind of karmic retribution takes me to the same place – I just don’t see the point in sinking to the level where we are glad or feel vindicated when someone whose beliefs we don’t like gets cancer.

Just my two cents.

Liam – do you have a link or something to verify that claim about Lee Atwater? I’d never heard that one before.

LG – go to Wikipedia and look up Lee Atwater. In the base of the article, it makes reference as to his apologising to the many people he had hurt in his career.

LG, that was widely known at the time, but here’s the pertinent section at Wikipedia:

Atwater repents
Shortly before his death from a brain tumor he said he had converted to Catholicism and, in an act of repentance, issued a number of public and written apologies to individuals whom he had attacked during his political career, including Dukakis. In a letter to Tom Turnipseed dated June 28, 1990, he stated, “It is very important to me that I let you know that out of everything that has happened in my career, one of the low points remains the so called ‘jumper cable’ episode,” adding, “my illness has taught me something about the nature of humanity, love, brotherhood and relationships that I never understood, and probably never would have. So, from that standpoint, there is some truth and good in everything.” [2]

In a February 1991 article for Life Magazine, Atwater wrote:

My illness helped me to see that what was missing in society is what was missing in me: a little heart, a lot of brotherhood. The ’80s were about acquiring — acquiring wealth, power, prestige. I know. I acquired more wealth, power, and prestige than most. But you can acquire all you want and still feel empty. What power wouldn’t I trade for a little more time with my family? What price wouldn’t I pay for an evening with friends? It took a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with that truth, but it is a truth that the country, caught up in its ruthless ambitions and moral decay, can learn on my dime. I don’t know who will lead us through the ’90s, but they must be made to speak to this spiritual vacuum at the heart of American society, this tumor of the soul.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Atwater

Anne, I think you say it best. I’m awfully sorry about your Dad.

Perhaps I’m suffering some sort of overload or trying to avoid some sort of overload but I heard the news and thought….

Eh.

But in the interest of fairness I felt the same about Elizabeth Edwards. I just don’t have whatever it takes to think Get Well Mr. Snow or Get Well Mrs. Edwards with any level of sincerity. Too much shit is afoot for me to summon the appropriate emotion (whatever that is) for a couple of complete strangers who can afford the best care money can buy.

Thanks for the follow-up. Somehow I don’t expect to see the same deathbed confessions from O’Reilly, Hannity, Hume, et al…

Birth does not have a high survival rate.

In the interests of scuttling this very classy overture in favor of partisan rancour — who wants to place bets on how heavily Couric lays into Snow for not leaving politics?

Between the Edwards and Michael J. Fox interview, I was starting to think Couric had something against people with severe illness. Now I see that she sees an advocate for liberal policies who gets a disease like a wounded chick, ripe for pecking. Snow, on the other hand, is an excellent opportunity to show respect in his trying time.

orange raises an interesting point. Rich and famous people getting cancer and making the news only make me think more about the poor people who not only die from untreated cancer, they are left to die of all kinds of simpler, more preventable illnesses.

Left to die by the rich.

Does our system cannibalize the poor to take care of the rich? I think most would say yes. We don’t spend more on health care for everyone because we already spend enormous amounts on those with money.

So Tony Snow has a chance to recover, because other people with less have none. He, and many rich people in this country, are literally living off the deaths of others.

All over America millions of us don’t have insurance. Hundreds of thousands of people are dying from cancer, and Tony Snow’s boss vetoed the funding for research that could well cure thousands of them. Maybe millions.

If Tony Snow wasn’t in the hospital, he would still tell us all with a grin how “compassionate” it is to save tiny unwanted blobs of cells rather than real live people. And in his current predicament he probably doesn’t even really believe that those blobs are anything more than a vote-getting ploy. I wonder what he’s thinking now.

If Tony Snow wasn’t in the hospital, he would still be telling us all with a grin how “compassionate” it was to launch a war based on bullshit and kill real live people. LOTS of them. If Tony Snow wasn’t in the hospital, he would still be telling us all with a grin that our beloved constitution isn’t being raped, that our system of government isn’t under assault.

Someday his party will be seen for what it is, a bunch of criminals who killed a LOT of people for political power. A party of death. And he actively helped that happen. He would still be helping them if he wasn’t sick.

I feel a bit sorry for him, and more for his family, but I feel sorriest for the people his party has killed. I see their faces, and I see his grinning mug laughing at those “liberals” who tried to help them.

If he has an “Atwater epiphany”, that would be nice. I will be glad to welcome him to the humanist fold.

I would respectfully suggest that this is a case of “if you don’t have anything nice to say, keep your yap shut.” This is a young man who’s likely to die of a terrible disease that has taken from, I would guess, every single one of us in terms of lost families and friends. Whatever you think of him professionally, it’s a tragedy for him, his family and all those he’s close to.

(That said, I will admit that if it had been Rove or Cheney instead of Snow, I’d–hopefully–be among those keeping my yap shut.)

The point about the Bush cuts for cancer research, however, is entirely fair game IMO. Budgets are a reflection of choices; this administration and its enablers in Congress repeatedly chose to buy obsolete weapons systems and provide tax cuts for billionaires over body armor and life-saving/improving science research.

I don’t much care for Tony Snow either, but I’d never wish death on him – if for no other reason, for the sake of his family and others who care about him. I hope he pulls through. He’s been a contemptible rat on occasion over the last year or so, but nothing he ought to die for.

Dick Cheney, now…. I can’t say I’ve never wished death on him, and since his family seems to have all the human warmth of a conga line of garden gnomes, I’d find it hard to feel sorry for them as well.

I don’t feel sorry for Snow nor do I offer any sympathy to his relatives. These people, these people, have made a mockery of our government, ruined the lives of thousands of spouses, parents, and children by sending their loved ones into an absolutely unecessary and ruinous horror in Iraq, impugned the character of literally millions of honest American citizens with their vile and billious propaganda, and continue to treat my government, our government, as a fucking cash cow for their supporters and rich benefactors. So now their duplicitous show dog of a spokesman meets his mortality and I’m, what, supposed to forget all that other stuff?? WHAT THE FUCK, PEOPLE!? I DON’T CARE IF HE’S DYING, IT HAPPENS TO BETTER PEOPLE THAN HIM EVERY FUCKING DAY!!!

Go ahead, call me sociopathic. I don’t give a flying fuck. Snow deserves to be repudiated 24/7. Not lamented!

Wishing death on someone is so… Republican. Can’t bring myself to do it. We do have to be prepared for the fact that human misery and tragedy are just political opportunity for Republicans, and “mourning periods” are usually just a unilateral disarming so they can mold the immediate narratives of the tragedy in their favor. Snow’s illness will likely be used to make journalists appear cruel for asking tough questions, Edward’s cancer simply an opportunity to derail her husband’s candidacy, just as Michael J. Fox was ruthlessly mocked for daring to show his face in public with symptoms of MS. Hours after the shuttle evaporated, Steve Milloy spun the story as due to non-existent “enviro-friendly” tiles, and the dust of the WTC had hardly settled by the time he blamed that disaster on regulations on asboestos.

There is nothing so shameless the GOP will not exploit it for partisan gain.

I am very bitter about what Bush and his cronies have done to damage this country. I believe Tony Snow is an enabler of that. I would be glad if he left public life to sail around the world, take his chances on “Dancing With the Stars,” or work in a soup kitchen somewhere. I do not think Tony has improved our public discourse in any way. However, I cannot be indifferent to the fact that – as someone else above said – he has had tragedy befall him. I wish him the best of outcomes in his battle against cancer. I don’t disagree that Snow’s political views and role in the cluster f*@# that is Bu$hCo should continue to be repudiated as often as one wishes. But, for me, that repudiation does not extend to indifference to his situation.

If I thought Snow, or any other member of the modern GOP, were playing politics the way sane people play at sports or even war — you know, grounds and all that — as they actually played it prior to Reagan/Bush — I’d be the first to extend sympathies. As it is, I feel no human kinship whatever with those who, when the shoe actually was on the other foot, willfully denied health care to millions. It may seem like an unnecessarily cold response, perhaps even an inhuman one, but they’ve more than earned it. Even requiescat in pace doesn’t come easily to me anymore. As I’ve said here several times, I’ll never be rich enough or mean enough to understand or sympathize with today’s Republicans.

A few of you just exhibited how rabid your partisanship is as exhibited by the posts above… one can only wish you share the same challenge as Tony Snow so you can find some humanity. Get a life.

In response to #43 (JRS Jr), while I haven’t read the entire thread, my overview has left me with the impression that most of the comments that I’ve read have been positive. I am surprised at just how forgiving this group can actually be, with a few notable exceptions.

I just cannot let you have the last word and make it look as though there were 42 messages of hate and ill-will before yours. It simply isn’t the case.

Personally, I shed a little tear for Tony Snow. He’s someone we either love to hate or hate to love, I’m not really sure. I don’t know how someone can spin facts with a straight face, with the eloquence and confidence of Mr. Snow. As a man of humility myself, I hear his confidence and wonder whether I’m just missing something and that maybe he’s just smarter than me.

Of course, in the end, one’s beliefs are a strange thing as wrong as they may be. I’m willing to concede that I might be wrong. On the other hand, I don’t think that Tony Snow or your average right-winger would be willing to do that. I believe that humility is one of the characteristics of wisdom and I have to have a little faith in that belief even in the face of an opposition that doesn’t share my humility or my wisdom.

One feels a little guilt I guess when someone you’ve shook your head at so many times and have reviled so thoroughly is suddenly revealed to be as vulnerable as anyone else.

I hope that Tony Snow will do some soul searching but, mostly, I think this is terrible news, both on a personal and political level and I take no joy whatsoever in the suffering of Mr. Snow and his family. My thoughts and prayers go out to them as honestly and warmly as they do to Elizabeth Edwards and her family.

I do like Tony Snow, working for this BULLY and SIDEKICK in the White House is his job, therefore we should not be surprised when Tony speaks with FORKED TONGUE just like his BULLY BOSS (hmm, I like this name). But, lets not forget, Tony is ill now, and no matter if we like him or not, he does NOT deserve to be kicked while he is down. That is just wrong!!!! Let us all wish him the best, that he gets over this hurdle. Our anger should be aimed at the Texas Cowboy WHO NEVER SPENT ONE day at war, and his SIDEKICK, the “Sharpshooter” who did “NOT HAVE THE TIME” to go to war. Tony get well, and PLEASE find yourself a more reputable boss the next time. I wonder if I could get Tony’s job??? I would even do it for nothing, JUST TO GET CLOSE TO THIS MISERABLE COWBOY, who is so corrupt AND arrogant. Why, you might ask???
I better close, because the answer is way BEYOND FREEDOM OF SPEACH!!!!!!!!!! Lore

You people on this blog are major slimebags. All of you put together wouldn’t make ONE Tony Snow.

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