The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie — deliberate, contrived and dishonest — but the myth — persistent, persuasive and unrealistic—John F. Kennedy

Sad news from the White House, as it was reported yesterday that White House Press Secretary Tony Snow was diagnosed with cancer for a second time and his return to the spokesman’s podium is uncertain.

Over the last year Mr. Snow, combining the slickness of a fast moving radio talk show host and the slipperiness of Nick Nailor from Thank You for Smoking, has become the ultimate defender of the indefensible—the master of diverting attention, avoiding questions, and spinning the truth. And he does it with a wink and a smile leaving most people wondering how he got away with it.

Snow has several tried and true methods of slipping out of a reporter’s grip. Throwing the question right back at the reporter when he doesn’t like how its phrased is one of his tried and true tricks. For example, when he’s asked, “How do you define victory in Iraq?” He’ll just say “Well that’s arbitrary. How do YOU define victory?” Then the newsman and Snow will tussle with a back and forth for a minute and a half about the semantics of specific words, and then he will simply smile and move on to the next question, reminiscent of Bill Clinton’s “Well it depends on what your definition of is is.”

Sometimes, knowing anything he says will be damaging, he just says, “I don’t know,” even when it’s obvious he does. He also loves questioning the motives of reporters. He will call the validity of their question into action or simply claim they are helping the enemy. When veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas questioned some of the Israeli tactics during their summer skirmish with Hezbollah, he just ignored the question and stated, “Well thank you for the Hezbollah view, Helen,” and moved on.

Unfortunately for Spin Master Snow there’s only so many ways you can skin a cat and while last week’s controversy over the politically motivated firings of US Attorneys by the White House may have shown why he’s this administration’s best asset, it still highlighted the complete incompetence of this Presidency.

After batting down reporters questions for the last month on the hopeless situation in Iraq, the deplorable treatment of our soldier’s wounded at Walter Reed Hospital, and the President’s 29% approval rating, he had to contradict all logic, as well as previous statements made by the White House regarding the selective firing of the US attorneys. Despite much evidence to the contrary, he had to stick to the point that they were fired because of their performance, not because, as a Karl Rove email suggests, they were not “loyal Bushies.”

First up was CNN reporter Ed Henry who during the pre-briefing before the actual press conference was pushing for some actual answers (imagine that?) when Tony Snow lost his normally perfect composure and abruptly snapped “Zip it!”

Next up was CBS morning show host Harry Smith, who cut Snow off when he started to give his traditional non-answer and tried to get him back to the actual line of questioning. Smith also had the gall to quote a Snow article about Clinton from 10 years ago that stated Clinton’s aides should be forced to testify to Congress, which is the exact same thing he now says should not be allowed because of executive privilege . In classic Snow fashion, he accused Smith of partisanship instead of reporting, and then proceeded to roll his eyes and give condescending answers for the rest of the interview.

Snow was at his best, though, during a press conference talking about the White Houses offer to have Rove testify behind closed doors, in front of limited people, not under oath, and with no transcript. Repeatedly claiming the offer was “generous,” “a reasonable proposal” and Congress should be happy to take it, Snow was incredulous to the fact that Congress could possibly want anything more. Faced with the question of why there are written transcripts of the very press briefings that he holds every day if an official record was not important, he was contradictive and almost nonsensical in his defense of the offer. This surreal scene was captured best in this clip from Jon Stewart of the Daily Show.

Unfortunately, for comedy’s sake, as well as the President’s, Tony Snow’s slipping and sliding will not be shown for the next month because late last week he had a growth removed from his abdomen. Originally thought to be benign, it was found to contain cancer, which had also spread to his liver. Snow, a colon cancer survivor, will be missed by those able to laugh at the absurdity this administration has become, as well as its defenders. As the President stumbles and stammers through speeches and his loyal guard of Rumsfeld, Gonzalas, and maybe soon Dick Cheney are picked off one by one, there will be no one to throw up smoke and mirrors or magically pull a rabbit out of a hat to save them.

Trevor Timm is a Blast Magazine staff writer