Tony Snow Is Dead - Conservatives Have A New Stick To Beat People With Now

The question comes to me more often than not - why is honesty punished while 'pretending' to be so is rewarded?

Pretty simple question that can be used in varous situations.

This time, we see the question manifest itself at the time of Tony Snow's death.

It is not suprising in the least that many conservative blogs have - and will continue to use - the occassion of his death to besmirch, smear, and do everything but deficate on anyone and everyone with opposing political viewpoints who don't stop what they are doing and say something positive about the man.

You see, this is where conservatives and everyone else differs.

Personally, I don't expect someone to say something ( anything ) nice about someone who has died that I may have admired. It's foolish to act this way, but this does not stop conservatives from doing so.

When Tim Russert passed-away last month, I was saddened a bit. This was not because I knew him or his family. The sadness came from the knowledge that the American media had lost someone with whom objectivity, honesty, and integrity had rested. Russert's job was not to 'spin' the statements and actions of whatever administration he was reporting on, he was - in the purest sense of the word - a journalist, and a damn good one at that.

So, why should I feel sad that Tony Snow has died?

Losing anyone to cancer is horrible. It is - in my mind - a disease that modern medical science as not struggled with hard enough in order to find a cure. But, this discussion isn't about cancer, or treatments versus a cure, this is about those in the conservative movement that expect you to act a certain way because they are.

I have lost 2 immediate family members to colon-cancer, so I know the anguish that family go through. I will never dispute what Snow's family has had to endure. What disgusts me are people that use the death of Snow ( or any within their ranks ) to create this aura of 'moral superiority', of 'patriotsm', or they claim that - by some bizarre spiritual transfer or osmosis - a spectral part of Tony Snow that has remained in this plane of existance in order to lambast your for not expressng a condolance in the form that he requires.

Surely there were conservative bloggers who knew the man, who may have called him a friend. But the average conservative commentor on the internet only knew Snow from television and radio. Their statements devolve into Crockeresque eulogies of a man whos primary job it was to create a sense of 'good will', 'honesty', 'integrity', and 'knowledge' around one of the most inept and corrupt administrations in my lifetime.

He was the primary guest-host for Rush Limbaugh's radio program from the mid-90s, hosted "Fox News Sunday" on the Fox"News" channel from '96 until 2003, and also had his own radio program on Fox"News" Radio. He was, by all accounts, a devout servant of the conservative-right. This, amongst several other reasons, is why he became George W. Bush's press secretary. This, if for no other reason at all, is why he is remembered by those the conservative movement - he towed the line.

It is easy to see why so many within the conservative movement would react the way they have been to Snow's death. They do it not-in-so-much as they feel loss, saddness, anger, or emptiness. They do it out of the reflexive nature of who they are. They have their weapon-of-the-moment. That weapon is the freshly-dead corpse of Tony Snow. And rest assured, they will get as much traction out of this man's departed soul as they can until something else breaks the news-cycle - or they just get tired of talking about him.