Special Report - April 26

BRIT HUME, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: So how will Tony Snow approach his new job? Will he represent the president to the press corps or only represent the press corps to the president? Who better to ask than Tony Snow himself?

Tony, welcome. Thanks for doing this.

TONY SNOW, APPOINTED WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Good to be here. Thanks, Brit.

HUME: First of all, tell me the insurance you have about your access to all that goes on in the White House and your access to the president.

SNOW: Well, the press secretaries in this White House have all had what they call walk in access. So when you need to you can walk in and you can talk to the president. And I've talked with them. And basically I've had access to every meeting and every bit of information I need to get my hands on.

HUME: And how did -- how do you -- you said in the brief encounter with the press today that -- that you want to work with those people.

SNOW: Yes.

HUME: now you've seen how poisonous that atmosphere can be in the briefing room.

SNOW: Yes.

HUME: What does that mean exactly?

SNOW: Well, I think the first thing it means is somebody who's never been a press secretary before. I need to get to know every person who's out in that room every day.

As you know, it's -- these are people who are holed up in close quarters for an extended period of time. And one way or another you're going to have to get along. So I want to get along with the press corps and understand whatever concerns they may have and at the same time try to figure out exactly the technical aspects of doing the job effectively.

I'm the guy who's going to spend the next couple of weeks watching briefings and trying to -- and meeting with staff and figuring out how it al works. So I don't have a fully crafted sort of strategy for doing things. The first thing you know when you're trying to figure out what's going on, is you asses the facts on the ground. That's the first thing I'm going to do.

HUME: Well, do you see yourself here as an advocate for the president or some kind of a -- sort of an information broker between the White House and the media?

SNOW: Well, you're a little bit of both. You -- a press secretary -- I spent a lot of time speaking with former press secretaries to get a feel for how it works, and especially those that have been successful. And there always seems to be an element that at times you have to be an advocate for the press in the sense of saying you've got to put this person on this flight. You've got to send this person to this event. There are some things where the press will argue for kinds of access that make sense.

At the same time, you are the president's advocate and information broker. The people sitting in that room want information. If they don't get it, they're going to get cranky. So it's important to make sure that there's a flow of information.

HUME: Well, is it important to keep the press from getting cranky, in your view?

SNOW: No. It's -- I don't think it's important. It's probably important not to use the podium as a place for picking fights you don't need to pick. You don't need to be needlessly provocative.

HUME: Let me ask you about another issue that comes up with press secretaries. When Marlin Fitzwater and for that matter Dee Dee Myers were press secretary to the first President Bush and Dee Dee Myers, of course, to President Clinton, they did not embark -- they did not engage in sort of political fisticuffs with members of Congress and other political players.

SNOW: Right.

HUME: They might rebut something a politician said, but they didn't take them on.

SNOW: No.

HUME: Mike McCurry on the other hand, who was a very effective in the eyes of many people, press secretary, did take them on. How do you plan to use that podium?

SNOW: I'm probably more Fitzwaterian. I mean, you never know exactly how you're going to perform until you get in the job. So at this point, I have not sat down and tried to figure out how I would handle it. But I think Marlin is somebody -- having worked with him and seen him, he was enormously effective. He had the trust of the press and the confidence of the president. That's the kind of a combination you need.

HUME: Do you anticipate and hope to be liked by the press corps?

SNOW: I think the most important thing is to be respected by the press corps. As you know, being chummy is one thing, but if I'm chummy and they're not getting information or they're getting a quality of information that they don't think is worthwhile, it's not going to do you any good.

So the idea, I think, is to do a competent job in terms of getting information to the press corps so that they respect you. You never lie. You never try to shave the truth. But on the other hand, you've got to keep in mind the guy I'm working for is the president.

HUME: And what do you see as -- I mean, if you see your role differently than, say, Scott McClellan saw his role, how so?

SNOW: I don't know. Because, frankly, not only do I not want to engage in comparisons with Scott, I'm not sure I could get inside his head and figure out what his role is. I simply know what I want mine to be, which is somebody who's an effective counselor and press secretary.

HUME: What about that counselor role? Press secretaries haven't always been advisers except on narrow matters involving press access and what the press should be told. Is it your expectation that you'll be at the table when policy decisions are made and that you'll have a voice?

SNOW: That's one of those things I'm just going to have to wait and see. I mean...

HUME: Would you like that?

SNOW: Yes, probably. But on the other hand, one of the things you have to do is to figure out what the president likes, what the president wants.

HUME: Apart from the opportunity to serve your country, which any citizen would cherish, what is it that draws you to this job?

SNOW: The thing that draws me to the job is -- and I said this in the briefing today -- is that this is a time when there are a number of hugely important domestic and international issues, and to get involved in a very serious way, in a very substantive way in all these issues is very exciting to me.

You have not only -- you've got issues like immigration, spending taxes at home. You look around the globe. What do you have: Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea, China, relations with Russia. You've got a lot of these things going on, and I can't think of something that would be stimulating and interesting and potentially fulfilling and helpful to the country.

HUME: Last question, one you're going to get. You said among the things critical to this president, for example, on September 30 of last year, "No president has looked this impotent this long when it comes to defending presidential powers and prerogatives." How do you plan to deal when asked with your past criticism of this president?

SNOW: Well, the pretty simple answer, which is there are probably a lot of people in the press room who from time to time say, "I wish I hadn't written or said that"

Here's the key. When I will be giving advice to the president, it will be my advice. And if I have differing opinions with some people, I will express them.

But on the other hand, the job as press secretary is not to come in as a surrogate president and say what I believe matters, because frankly what matters is what the administration has decided to do, and that I will express as forcefully as I possibly can.

HUME: Tony, congratulations. All the best to you.

SNOW: Thanks, Brit.

HUME: Good to see you. Hope you'll come back.

SNOW: Yes, sure will.

HUME: You're always welcome here. [snip]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY SNOW, INCOMING PRESS SECRETARY: One of the reasons I took the job is not only because I believe in the president because believe it or not I want to work with you. These are times that are going to be very challenging. We've got a lot of big issues ahead and we've got a lot of important things that all of us are going to be covering together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUME: Well, there he was, Tony Snow today at the White House becoming the president's press secretary. Who would have thought that a few months ago? Some analytical observations on this now from Fred Barnes, executive editor of the "Weekly Standard," Mort Kondracke, executive editor of "Roll Call," and Mara Liasson, national political correspondent of National Public Radio, Fox News contributors all.

Well you all had a chance to hear what Tony had to say about how he plans to tackle his new responsibilities on this broadcast earlier and you heard about what he just said then about wanting to work with the press corps. What about it?

MORT KONDRACKE, "ROLL CALL": I was struck by the first words out of the president's mouth actually when he walked into the briefing room. He said, I'm here in the briefing room to break some news. I happen to know that Tony Snow thinks that one of the things that ought to happen in the White House press room is that news gets broken, news get made in the press room and that the president, when he goes out and makes speeches, should make news and that that's the way to have an affirmative promotion of a president's policy instead of the press secretary in a defensive crouch all the time as there's incoming, crouched under a rock that there ought to be a vigorous sale of the president's policy.

So you know, I think it's a good step. It's certainly better than what's preceded it. The press secretaries in the past have been so confined to their talking points they haven't been able to fight back against the opposition or even expand upon the themes of the day.

MARA LIASSON, NPR: Or sell it properly. Look, I think that Tony's personality is diametrically opposite from all that. And even if they asked him to be like that, he couldn't. So I think they're in for a big change.

HUME: You mean he couldn't be strictly talking points .

LIASSON: Yeah, name, rank and serial number. He can't do that. And he won't do that. And I think he wants to have some fun in the briefing room, he wants to break some news, he clearly wants to make reporters feel like they're getting something as opposed to just being in this horrible kind of weird dysfunctional relationship that occurs for an hour every day. That's what it is like in there.

FRED BARNES, "WEEKLY STANDARD": I never thought of the White House press room was a place for fun. That's for sure.

LIASSON: Tony likes to have fun. He is a fun loving laid back, happy go lucky guy.

BARNES: It's a pit of vipers. It's fun. The first thing I would have Tony do and that is ban television in the press room.

HUME: You mean live television?

BARNES: Ban live television period. Live or taped television of the briefings. It is what has helped create this horrible atmosphere there where the reporters are preening and showboating and so on and asking questions that are accusations and so on. Shut that off. That's the first thing. That also makes the White House and the president look at more embattled than this president really is.

HUME: I know, but if you've taken somebody on whom you believe is a strong figure, a celebrity, somebody who has some lines out and appeal to your base, do you want to take that person off television?

BARNES: No, you don't want to take him off television, you just want to take him off -- out of the daily briefing where he's a pin cushion. And as Mort said, incoming is aimed at him all the time. Look, Tony's going to be the hot figure in the Bush administration for weeks and weeks, maybe months to come.

Everybody will want him on TV. He can be on every show. He can be on the evening news shows. He's already been on here. But I'm sure you'll be happy to have him back sometime. He'll be everywhere.

He can give speeches. The one thing the president doesn't have, at least I never see, he doesn't have people from Congress or even from his administration out pushing and promoting and defending his policies all the time. They just aren't out there. There's a gap to be filled. Tony can fill that. He doesn't need to be bogged down in the daily briefing. He's a spokesman for the administration and there are lots of places he can speak very effectively, the daily briefing isn't one of them.

LIASSON: Putting the daily briefing out of his misery might be very, very good. I wouldn't hold your breath. That's all I'd say.

HUME: When I covered the White House the first four years, Marlin Fitzwater was the press secretary, President Bush I was in office, and Marline would allow some pictures at the top. He was always on the record. But the briefings normally were not televised. So you could say what the press secretary said and you could put it up on the screen, publish it in your newspaper but it wasn't a live TV show. The atmosphere was somewhat different. It was during the Clinton years that it became a more regular practice to televise the whole thing everyday and that's carried over. What about that idea, Mort, abolishing the .

KONDRACKE: I think this would be interpreted as a retreat, the ultimate sinking into a cave. What's the matter you got a new press secretary and now you're going to - come on.

BARNES: Look he's out all over town.

KONDRACKE: If the press secretary is good, the way Joe Lockhart and Mike McCurry were, they can dominate that event by putting news out, by making statements that are interesting, by flooding the zone with information, by having guests in to sell the administration policy on cable television every single day that will get picked up else somewhere. This administration is in deep trouble. It needs to have a good sales job and I think retreating from live television every day is a bad way to start.

BARNES: I didn't say retreating from live television. I was saying not having the briefing on live television.

Mort, it is a battleground. Who is winning that war? The press is winning. They've already decided. The press has decided. They've rendered their verdict on Bush. It's a negative verdict.

KONDRACKE: You know perfectly well people don't like the press. So therefore this is an opportunity for the press secretary to win these battles.

HUME: When we come back with our panel Rice and Rumsfeld show up together in Baghdad. We'll talk about the symbolism of that visit when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: We now are moving through another important milestone, the formation of a new government, a sovereign government of Iraq. The first government that doesn't have a qualifier in front of it. A transition -- it's not a transitional government, it's not an interim government, it's not a governing council, it's a government of Iraq. And that's an important thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUME: Well, that was Secretary Rumsfeld as you can tell. He had General Casey there with him also visiting Iraq today with the secretary was the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice. So what is this visit and the events that preceded it? There you see the two with the Iraqi President Talibani. Who of course is the Kurdish leader and he will remain in his position. And so there they were. Hoping perhaps that their visit would get more coverage than the breaking of the political deadlock that paved the way for it.

BARNES: It didn't get much coverage and was an important thing. Look, they have a prime minister, they just don't have a full government yet. And they have to flesh it out and they have to deal with a couple of big problems.

One is the Interior Ministry which has been a hot bed of Shiite militias carrying out revenge again the Sunnis, they have to deal with that. And I think the most important thing, the Iraqi people have been over there saying the Iraqis love politics. They love the game, they love the disagreements and the debates and everything. One part of it they haven't quite learned very well and that is the art of compromise. It's very, very important.

HUME: They finally did compromise.

BARNES: They finally compromised on a prime minister but there's going to be some compromise needed in selecting cabinet members, particularly for the interior post.

LIASSON: I agree with Fred, that's the key position. Because it's been controlled by Shiites. There are a lot of stories about death squads and police who are wearing police uniforms have been taking away Sunni men and you find their bodies later. So whoever runs that ministry has to be somebody who can instill confidence in the Sunni minority.

KONDRACKE: All that's true, but what the main thing is here you have the two most important foreign policy cabinet officers going there to embrace the new prime minister and the new government and underscore the United States' support. I mean, this is follows by a day where the butcher Zarqawi was on a videotape saying that we were going to be defeated and humiliated there, the crusaders were going to be forced out of the country and all that. Next day you have flying in the secretary of state and the secretary of defense saying, uh-uh, we're here to stay and this is on the move. The other theme that's been .

HUME: How do you interpret that Zarqawi tape and the timing of it? Do you think it's connected to the compromise?

KONDRACKE: The government? Absolutely. This is we're going to defeat this government. We're going to win. We're going to kill whoever we have to kill and we're going to triumph. So I think this was -- it wasn't -- it was not maybe intended to be a counter to Zarqawi but certainly if you're an Iraqi and you see the videotape, the next day you see the two fly in, you've got to be a little bit reassured.

BARNES: If you're winning you don't have to put out a tape. That's how I interpret it. They couldn't stop this government, the election in December, they haven't stopped the prime minister from stepping in there now and it reminds me that, you know, college football games, all the people going we're number one, we're number one. There's one thing that's always true about those people. They're not number one. And Zarqawi is not number one either. You put out the tapes because you're losing.

KONDRACKE: The other theme that was involved in the coverage here is that there's been tension between Condi Rice and Don Rumsfeld over the remark that Condi made about thousands of tactical errors, you know. This is really overblown. When you see the quote, it is, of course we made mistakes, probably made a thousand tactical mistakes and then Rumsfeld said, I don't know what she's talking about. Well, he probably didn't know what she was talking about. He didn't say she doesn't know what she's talking about. I think this is overblown.

HUME: You heard about that today when he was asked about that. Rumsfeld was asked about that. He said she's right here. Ask her.

James Rosen described that - it wasn't on videotape, we described that as Rumsfeld having snapped that to a reporter. I guess he did.

So what about all this, Mara? Is this a -- I mean, are we seeing really an important milestone here or another case of now comes the hard part?

LIASSON: I think we're seeing an important milestone and there are hard parts ahead. You can always say that. This is an important milestone. We waited for months and months and months for them to get a prime minister to get rid of the one the U.S. didn't feel was strong enough and good enough.

HUME: Well, he couldn't unite the country. He couldn't get elected.

LIASSON: This one has to unite the country and he has to somehow stop the sectarian violence and he has to make people feel that all the ethnic groups feel that they're included.

But the other thing that happened today is that the U.S. military commander talking about some U.S. troops leaving in the next couple of months.

HUME: What do you expect about that? The president's been very careful not to tie that to any political tides. Do you think it's connected .

LIASSON: Yes. I do.

HUME: OK. Mort?

KONDRACKE: I think he's going to keep as many troops there he needs. He's not going to yield despite the fact .

LIASSON: Bring some home in time for the election.

HUME: Will there the troops come home in time for the election?

KONDRACKE: He may bring some but not much.

BARNES: Few.