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This Week with George Stephanopoulos marks the passing of pioneering cardiovascular surgeon Michael DeBakey, investor and philanthropist John Templeton, former all-star Yankee and baseball announcer Bobby Murcer, former FoxNews anchor and White House Press Secretary Tony Snow as well as 5 soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to icasualties.org, the total number of troop members killed in Iraq is now 4,432. During the last week, Iraq Body Count confirmed the deaths of 165 Iraqi civilians.

As with all posts about the passing of notable current political figures, we ask that you keep your posts respectful. Posts that do not comport with the commenting policy will be deleted without notice.

Think Progress:

Yesterday, MoveOn launched a petition calling on former White House press secretary Scott McClellan to donate the proceeds from his new book to veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. This morning on NBC’s Meet the Press, McClellan promised to give a portion of the profits to these men and women.

It's not all, but a portion. However, without giving McClellan too much credit, it's a damn sight more than any other Bush administration official has done.

John Cole noted, “I honestly cannot recall a State of the Union address which has received less hype.” Neither can I. Usually, even for lame-duck presidents, the SOTU is a pretty significant moment of political theater. I remember the last addresses for Reagan and Clinton drew quite a bit of attention, but going into tonight’s speech, no one, on either side, seems to care at all. I frequently get the sense the country is asking Bush, almost in unison, “You’re still here?”

Of course, the SOTU invariably leads to some reflection and introspection. For example, a reporter asked White House Press Secretary Dana Perino a very good question: “Is the country better off now than seven years ago?” Given the response, I don’t think Perino was prepared for the question.

“Certainly seven years ago — well, seven years ago, right before September 11th, I think that people would say that the country certainly felt better off. There’s been — once we were confronted with terrorists who would fly jumbo jets into buildings and kill thousands of our citizens in an instant, it created a sense of fear and nervousness about our security. And that’s why the President decided to take on the terrorists head on and go on the offense.

“And we have done that around the world. We have been successful so far in preventing another attack on our country. But it’s not for their lack of trying. And that’s another reason why the President — tonight you’ll hear him call on Congress to pass the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act reauthorization. They have until Friday to do that, and the President sees no reason why they shouldn’t be able to get that done.”

Um, Dana? (Can I call you “Dana”?) The question was, “Is the country better off now than seven years ago?” The fact that you couldn’t answer it — you barely tried — doesn’t exactly reflect well on Bush’s presidency.

Of course, this shouldn’t come as too big a surprise. What, exactly, could Perino say?

(Not hinting as to where she'll end up. No siree.) AP via Yahoo:

Fran Townsend, the leading White House-based terrorism adviser who gave public updates on the extent of the threat to U.S. security, is stepping down after 4 1/2 years.

President Bush said in a statement Monday morning that Townsend, 45, "has ably guided the Homeland Security Council. She has played an integral role in the formation of the key strategies and policies my administration has used to combat terror and protect Americans."

In her resignation to Bush, Townsend indicating she was returning to the private sector, saying in a handwritten letter, "As you know, it is with a profound sense of gratitude that I have decided to take a respite from public service." Read on...

One has to wonder, is she going broke like former White House Press Secretary Tony Snow? Or is Townsend simply following other Bush administration officials like Turdblossom and Dan Bartlett, who saw the writing on the wall and figured they'd get while the getting is good?

(guest blogged by BillW)

As the hate site says: "In Case Anyone Wants To Deliver Justice." The editor of the website with a swastika at the top says on an audio at the site "I'd like to go down there and put a bullet in each one of those little black kids ..." When asked if he might have brought any harm to the Jena 6 by posting that, he told CNN "I don't know that doing justice can be considered doing harm."

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Just sick. Pam has more:

As former White House press secretary Tony Snow said on an October 2003 edition of Fox News Sunday

"Here's the unmentionable secret: Racism isn't that big a deal any more. No sensible person supports it. Nobody of importance preaches it. It's rapidly becoming an ugly memory."

Nate has the Snow video....

[insert joke here]

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"Seems a passing sparrow took an opportunity to weigh in on what the President had to say."

From ABC:

As President Bush took a question Thursday in the White House Rose Garden about scandals involving his Attorney General, he remarked, "I've got confidence in Al Gonzales doin' the job."

Simultaneously, a sparrow flew overhead and left a splash on the President's sleeve, which Bush tried several times to wipe off.

Deputy White House Press Secretary Dana Perino promptly put the incident through the proper spin cycle, telling ABC News, "It was his lucky day...everyone knows that's a sign of good luck."

The LA Times (reg.req.) talks about an issue that Nicole and I have been posting about. Care to guess? It's regarding the lazy media we have that allows the White House to frame the debate on the word game with no resistance. Nicole Belle gets the nod in the LA Times: "Storm rises over "Surge" by Johanna Neuman.

I've noticed a complete acceptance on the part of most of the MSM [mainstream media] (and Congress) to accept the White House nomenclature," blogger Nicole Belle wrote in a complaint posted on crooksandliars.com.

"After six years of this, I think we all know that he who frames the debate and chooses the vocabulary wins from the beginning. Let's be sure to not accept the White House framing, no matter how wimped out the MSM is."

Oddly enough, Tony Snow tells the media what they should be doing all along.

If all that seemed a bit confusing, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow had a solution Tuesday. Braced on "surge" versus "escalation," Snow said it was up to the reporters:

"You guys do words for a living," he said. "Rather than trying to ask Democratic or even Republican lawmakers what the proper descriptive term is, you figure it out."

Now was that so hard? Apparently it is.

White House Press Secretary Tony Snow held a quick gaggle with reporters in Crawford yesterday, when an interesting subject came up.

Q: Tony, earlier this year the President brought in some advisors to talk about the war in Iraq, some outsiders -- outside experts. Is he doing anything similar, or are any senior officials doing anything similar with respect to the Middle East? Are you bringing in any outside experts or --

Snow: Yes.

Q: -- perhaps Jewish or Christian or Muslim --

Snow: There have been meetings of that sort in recent days.

Q: What can you tell us about them?

Snow: You know what, I'll see what I'm cleared to tell you about.

Asked what "types of people" have offered the White House advice on the Middle East, Snow said, "Again, at this point, I really don't want to do it." Asked if "religious leaders" have been part of these meetings, Snow said, "Again, I'm just not going to go any further."

Why all the secrecy? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that White House recently invited a Christian apocalyptic fiction writer to chat about biblical prophecy.

--Guest Post by Steve Benen, The Carpetbagger Report

Tony was asked about Bush's speech on the Marriage Amendment today and got into a little trouble. A man such as the White House Press Secretary should know something about civil rights one would imagine.
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Raw Story: Tony Snow signaled that Bush considers an amendment barring same-sex marriage a "civil rights" matter, then stumbled when asked to define civil rights...

Q You mentioned civil rights. Are you comparing this to various civil rights measures which have come to the Congress over the years?

MR. SNOW: Not -- well, these -- it --

Q Is this a civil right?

MR. SNOW: Marriage? It actually -- what we're really talking about here is an attempt to try to maintain the traditional meaning of an institution that has maintained one meeting for -- meaning for a period of centuries. And furthermore --

Q And you would equate that with civil rights?

MR. SNOW: No, I'm just saying that I think -- well, I don't know. How do you define civil rights?

Q It's not up to me. Up to you.

Read the transcript

Helena Keeffe: The Past is Over...elementary school kids write speeches for President Bush

Confined Space: OSHA saves lives...sometimes. And this outfit is just as bad. The calculated indifference of our regulatory agencies and the immigration issue are of a piece.

Hard, Cutting: Interesting that the position that serves to communicate most with the American public--White House press secretary--remains vacant. Patricia has some thoughts on this matter and the rest of the Bolton "rescue" plan.

blogenlust: Those torture chambers...

DARE Generation Diary: The ridiculous lengths to which many of our elected officials are going in order to push their own brand of morality are getting quite scary. Get ready for Sex Toy Prohibition.

Night Bird's Fountain: Protest, the Hoover Institution, and the next "October Surprise"