The Discerning Texan

There will be no great monuments built to honor Tony Snow, former White House press secretary and journalist who died this morning at age 53.

They don’t erect too many statues for those who toil in the trenches of political combat, battling for what they believe with a smile and uncommon good humor. Nor do they build vast memorials for regular Joes who inspire the rest of us to live a life true to ourselves and our loved ones.

No, they won’t build them — but perhaps they should. For if we only build such tributes to honor the well known or well born among us, we fail to take into account that it is usually the ordinaries who teach us the most about life and encourage us to live every day as if it were a gift rather than a travail.

Reading the dozens of encomiums written by friends, colleagues, rivals, political foes, and allies, it is clear that Tony Snow was universally thought of as a man of principle who thoroughly enjoyed the jousting of the political wars in Washington while earning respect for not allowing personal acrimony to cloud his relationships with the opposition.

He took perhaps the toughest political job in Washington — spokesman for the president — and tried to walk the line between cheerleading and information dissemination. He was not always successful. Nor can it be said that he was loved by the White House press corps (as cynical a group of reporters as there is anywhere). But even when things got contentious, Snow tried to charm his foes rather than get into a shouting match with them.

Read the whole thing. A very sad day.