Saturday, July 12, 2008

The Tony Snow International Appreciation Society   [Mark Steyn]

I was about to tell my own Tony Snow story when I realized it was the same as so many others - that of meeting the guy when you're an obscure peripheral fellow of no consequence and being amazed that he's familiar with your work and is gracious and affable and collegial and full of generous advice. So I thought instead, as an illustration of the range of his generosity, I'd pen a PS to this Corner post from six months ago about the great Australian wag Tim Blair being stricken by cancer. For Oz-minded NR-ers like myself and John O'Sullivan, Tim is one of the glories of the Antipodean media. But, no disrespect to the bloke, there's no particular reason why bigshot Beltway insiders should be paying attention to him.

Nevertheless, when my Aussie confrere came to write what he regarded as the obligatory cancer column, it began with him watching Tony Snow talk about his illness on the Letterman show and ended with Tim thanking his many readers for their good wishes:

After I posted news of the diagnosis at my website, the response from readers was incredibly heartfelt, hopeful and helpful. Many cancer survivors emailed encouragement and advice, including this: "Keep your spirits up, your attitude aggressive and positive. We live in an age of miracles, and researchers are finding new treatments every day.

"At any rate, I'm one of many thinking of and praying for you. If you need to bounce things off a fellow cancer patient, don't be shy. But in any event, fight - and enjoy every moment!"

The sender was Tony Snow.

To my knowledge, he wrote similar letters to at least two other far-flung subjects of the Crown. He was an amazing man who gave the impression he had all the time in the world for everyone he met. Which, of course, was the one thing he didn't have. He had a rare temperament in today's politics, and the Administration might have been spared the vicissitudes of these last five years had he become press secretary earlier.

07/12 05:19 PMShare