In formally naming the Fox News commentator Tony Snow to be his press secretary on Wednesday, President Bush completed a decade-long transformation of the role of the presidential spokesman from behind-the-scenes functionary to daily on-camera personality.
Mr. Snow is something the White House briefing room has not yet had at the lectern: a star of the opinionated cable news era. But he is also something Mr. Bush has never had: a free-wheeling outsider in a very public position, and one with a history of sharing critical opinions of the president.
While making the much anticipated announcement that Mr. Snow would be his spokesman, Mr. Bush acknowledged that "he sometimes has disagreed with me," a reference to recent columns Mr. Snow has written calling Mr. Bush's domestic policy "lackluster" and the president "something of an embarrassment" to his conservative backers.
"I asked him about those comments," Mr. Bush said in the White House briefing room, "and he said, 'You should have heard what I said about the other guy.' "
(Hardy, har, har.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/27/washington/27bush.html?hp&ex=1146110400&en=9ba43bb6c199836f&ei=5094&partner=homepage