Snow Jobs in the White House Press Room

Tony Snow, who was promoted from the White House propaganda section (Fox News) to be Presidential Press Secretary, is being accused of lying to the White House press corps. It's never a good idea to lie to the press. Tony ought to check with Scott McClellan about how hostile they can be once you've done so. But did he?

Last week Mr. Snow explained Bush's first ever veto by stating the President considered stem cell research as comparable to murder. Now he's saying he mis-spoke. Saying you "mis-spoke" is the modern equivalent of admitting you lied. No one admits lying anymore, they simply "mis-spoke." That's a bit "disingenuous." Lying is lying and the press corps understands. Now we may have the spokeman lying about whether he lied.

Here's what Snow said last week:

"The president believes strongly that for the purpose of research it's inappropriate for the federal government to finance something that many people consider murder. He's one of them," Snow said from the White House. "The simple answer is he thinks murder's wrong."

Bush Chief of Staff Josh Bolten got more than a bit of heat over the statement from Tim Russert on Meet the Press Sunday. It was actually pleasant to watch him squirming as Russert kept pinning him down for an answer. Equating the destruction of a few blastocysts in a petrie dish with slaughtering Aunt Millie or shooting a nine year old Iraqi boy in his own home, or dropping American made bombs on Americans visiting Beirut, now that's murder.

It seems Tony Snow got confused and forgot he was speaking officially for George W. Bush. Or perhaps not. Perhaps he thought he was still doing commentary on Fox and thought the symbols behind him were simply props. It's more likely he was saying what Bush actually thinks and shouldn't have been so blunt about saying so. After all, if you think these cells are human beings and controlling them is equal to slavery, comparing their destruction to murder actually makes sense.

The opposition to stem cell research is just this: life begins at conception and these embryonic stem cells are human lives so destroying them is murder. Why won't the President stand up for what he truly believes? Why are they backing down from these statements? If Bush truly believes life begins at conception why is he making Snow back off his statement?

It appears Bolten got so much ridicule on the position during the MTP interview they realized how much political damage such an extremist view can produce and decided to back off the position. If so I want to know why the President is afraid to stand up for one of his core beliefs. Either he believes life begins at conception or he doesn't. Which is it? Bush and other Republicans on the fringe are out of step with what most Americans believe and support and may now be awakening to that reality.