Tony Snow served as White House spokesperson from May 8, 2006 until September 12, 2007. He died over the weekend, on June 12. Sometimes argumentative, sometimes hilarious, sometimes intentionally unintelligible, his White House press briefings ranged from the absurd to the horrifying. And so we remember his life in words, from the notable quotables to prolonged interactions with the press corps.

"To say that you don't know when a war is going to end doesn't mean that you don't think it's going to end." —September 12, 2007, his last day at the White House.

Q Tony, about the evaluation, can I just start on the point of --

MR. SNOW: I think David is out-shouting you --

Q Well, that's not fair at all --

MR. SNOW: We'll go to David. David, yes.

—December 6, 2006

"I defy you to find in the history of mankind a situation in which an artificial political goal won a war." —September 12, 2007.

Q Understanding that, but again, what is the President's feeling about the fact that Osama bin Laden, the mastermind, has not been found?

MR. SNOW: Well, we're going to find him. I mean, we -- he said all along we're going to find him.

—September 11, 2007.

Q Tony, you just said a moment ago that $22 billion is a significant chunk of change, you said, for the American people.

MR. SNOW: Right.

Q What then do you make of the Congressional Budget Office report yesterday saying that the war in Iraq is likely to cost over $1 trillion?

MR. SNOW: Well, if you take a look at what happened on September 11th, 2001, it's estimated that the aftershocks of that could have cost up to $1 trillion.

—August 1, 2007.

You've had generals on the ground say that troop strength is thin, it's wearing thin.

MR. SNOW: I believe that the generals who have spoken recently have talked about the success of things that are going on, the importance of staying the course --

Q Is it thin or not?

MR. SNOW: Thin? It's a tough war.

—July 27, 2007.

Q Tony, I want to go back to the issue of an apology, and I want to stay issue-focused and not blaming. Are there -- is the American people owed some kind of apology from someone in this administration for the leaking of a CIA person's name, personnel's name?

MR. SNOW: Yes, it's improper to be leaking those names.

Q You say it's improper, so you're saying someone in this administration owes the American public an apology?

MR. SNOW: I'll apologize. All done.

Q No, it's not. That's flippant, that's a very flippant way of doing something very serious -- it was a very serious matter. That was very flippant. [...]

MR. SNOW: How many of you have apologized for a controversial name appearing under tough circumstances in a news story? I daresay the answer is zero.

—July 3, 2007

Q Tony, I have one more Al Gore book quote. (Laughter.) "The President deceived the public by suggesting that Iraq was involved in 9/11." He says, when the administration continued to "make bold and confident assertions that leave the impression with 70 percent of the country that Saddam Hussein was linked to al Qaeda and was primarily responsible for the 9/11 attack, this can only be labeled deception."

MR. SNOW: Unfortunately, the [former] Vice President probably has been listening to people who have deliberately misled him. The President has made it clear over and over and over that there was no relationship between Saddam Hussein and September 11th.

—May 22, 2007

Q So, Tony, back when President Clinton was citing executive privilege to keep internal deliberations in that White House from being talked about in Congress, you wrote -- now famously --

MR. SNOW: I didn't say it was famous, Ed. I didn't get that kind of coverage at the time. (Laughter.)

Q Well, it's become more famous.

MR. SNOW: Is it making its way through the left-wing blogs?

Q It is. (Laughter.)

Q No, no. But you wrote quite eloquently about this. You said, "Taken to its logical extreme, that position would make it impossible for citizens to hold the chief executive accountable. We would have a constitutional right to a coverup."

MR. SNOW: Right. Now let me --

Q So why were you wrong then and right now?

MR. SNOW: Because this is a not entirely analogous situation. I've just told you what we have, in fact, offered to make available to members of Congress. And what we are doing is we are holding apart confidential communications between advisors and the President. And that is pretty standard practice in White Houses. But, again --

Q It's exactly what the Clinton administration talked about.

MR. SNOW: Well, I'm not so sure.

—March 21, 2007

Q How do you react to the criticism from some quarters that despite your rhetorical abilities, the real object of this White House has been not to answer questions? (Laughter.)

MR. SNOW: I was just trying to figure out a coy way to answer it.

—August 31, 2007

Q How about this, Tony -- the deal that President Musharraf signed with the tribal leaders last year, did that lead to a strengthening of al Qaeda? Did it do the opposite that we wanted it to?

MR. SNOW: Hard to say. This is something that still falls into that -- one understands the logic; it does not appear at this point that -- again, I don't want to -- let me -- I am going to tiptoe --

Q It is not clear at this point that --

MR. SNOW: That I'm going to finish that sentence. (Laughter.)

—February 26, 2007

On the writing of the State of the Union:

Q So it's all done?

MR. SNOW: No, still working on it. I know that he's done some edits this morning, and still working through it. My guess is that there will be some revisions today and probably some tomorrow. But at this point, it's more in the form of polishing up.

Q Length?

MR. SNOW: Better wait until we finish doing the tweaks.

Q Ballpark?

MR. SNOW: Forty-plus.

Q Have you seen it?

MR. SNOW: Yes.

Q Is it any good?

MR. SNOW: Yes, of course it's good. (Laughter.)

Q Does it have anything new in it?

MR. SNOW: Yes, it does.

Q What's the best part?

Q Really? I mean --

MR. SNOW: You know, it's difficult to say. It's like looking in a drawer full of diamonds. (Laughter.)

January 22, 2007

Q Why is it going to be a long war?

MR. SNOW: Because as far as we can tell, terrorists don't have any desire to stop entertaining thoughts of terror any time soon.

—December 19, 2006

And one of his truly worst moments.

MR. SNOW: I'll tell you what the Vice President said. You can push all you want, wasn't referring to water boarding and would not talk about techniques.

Q Let's back it up here for a second, because what we're saying is -- and I've got the transcript -- "Would you agree a dunk in water is a 'no-brainer' that can save lives?" Vice President: "It's a 'no-brainer' for me." Tony --

MR. SNOW: Read the rest of the answer.

Q What could "dunk in the water" refer to if not water boarding?

MR. SNOW: I'm just telling you -- I'm telling you the Vice President's position. I will let you draw your own conclusions, because you clearly have. He says he wasn't talking --

Q I haven't drawn any conclusions. I'm asking for an explanation about what "dunk in the water" could mean.

MR. SNOW: How about a dunk in the water?

Q So, wait a minute, so "dunk in the water" means what, we have a pool now at Guantanamo, and they go swimming?

MR. SNOW: Are you doing stand up? (Laughter.)

Q I'm asking -- well, let's start with something basic. Dunk in the water refers to what? If it doesn't refer to water boarding, tell me what it could possibly refer to?

MR. SNOW: No, because the transcript is there. You read it, you interpret it. I'm telling you what the Vice President says. He says he wasn't referring --

Q What other way is there to interpret this?

MR. SNOW: What you're saying is the Vice President is wrong in reporting what he says. I'm sorry. I'm telling you what the Vice President says. I can't go any further, and I'm not going to engage in what-could-he-mean because he said what he meant. He said -- he said he wasn't talking about water boarding.

—October 27, 2006

Q How about an emotional or factual response to the Rhode Island primary yesterday?

MR. SNOW: The Republican incumbent won. Woo-hoo. (Laughter.)

Q Is there any irony in the fact that the administration campaigned hard for someone who opposed the President on Iraq, on the environment, on abortion and a bunch of other things?

MR. SNOW: No. It means, unlike in Connecticut, we support our incumbents.

—September 13, 2006

Q Any updated information about the talks?

MR. SNOW: The talks?

Q Putin.

MR. SNOW: There will be a number of social occasions and there will be a number of private occasions, and the two leaders, I daresay, are looking forward to all of the above.

Q What kind of social occasions apart from the lunch?

MR. SNOW: Well, I think there's a social dinner terrorism night, as well.

Q What about boating? Are they going to go boating?

MR. SNOW: I don't know. We'll give you -- we will try to find a recreational roster when one becomes available. I'm not sure that they're going to do boating.

June 30, 2006

PRESS CORPS: (Applause.)

Q Where ya been? (Laughter.)

MR. SNOW: Just hanging out. Thank you so much, it's great to be back.

Q We thought Rove double-deleted you. (Laughter.)

MR. SNOW: All right.

April 30, 2007