Tony Snow: 'Are we winning the war?'

Tony Snow, the White House press secretary who will face chemotherapy for a recurrence of cancer, returned to work today with an emotional report on his own condition and a quick reminder of the reality that faces the White House, embroiled with congressional leaders in debate over the war in Iraq.

Snow, who was treated for colon cancer in 2005, will face a new regimen of chemotherapy for cancer that has reappeared in his liver -- involving a treatment that wasn't available to him two years ago. That therapy starts Friday. Snow returned to the White House podium this morning, after a month away.

"I'm not going to tell you how it's going to work out because I don’t know,'' said Snow, parceling out words between pauses to contain his emotion. "We obviously feel optimistic… Faith, optimism and love will be part of it… I am unbelievably lucky and unbelievably blessed… and happy to be back.''

It didn't take long, of course, for work to inject itself. After several minutes of on-camera comments at the occasion of his first appearance in a month, the television cameras came down for the informal "gaggle'' that the press secretary conducts with reporters off-camera. Today, as war protesters assemble outside the White House to unfurl a banner ridiculing the "Mission Accomplished'' banner that greeted the president aboard an aircraft carrier four years ago tomorrow, a reporter asked Snow: Are we winning the war?

"Are we winning the war?… Yeah, exactly, welcome back,'' he said. "You know… we're fighting the war. The only way to lose the war is to walk away from it… The notion that somehow the United States walks away and there are no consequences is the sort of thing that doesn’t make any sense…The fact that it is difficult does not mean we should walk away from it…. If we turn tail, what it means is we weaken ourselves.''

Snow's own personal battle resumes on Friday, with a sense of awe over the speed at which medical technology is advancing: "I'm taking a cancer cocktail this time around, a chemo compound, that was not in broad use two years ago,'' he said. "Not everybody will survive cancer,'' he allowed, with some advice for fellow sufferers of cancer. ''You've got the gift of life… Take advantage of it.

"I'll try not to get choked up…'' he said at the start. "I'll go slow…

"You never anticipate this stuff. It just happens,'' he said, attempting to thank people in the press briefing room for their support during his illness, failing at the words and throwing a simple thumb up.

"I'm a very lucky guy,'' Snow said. "I know the first reaction of people when they hear the word cancer is, uh-oh…. '' Some small cancers were discovered in exploratory surgery last month, he said, and "we are going to attack them using chemotherapy.''

And yet, business looms, with President Bush awaiting a $124-billion war spending bill that includes timelines for withdrawals of U.S. troops – a bill he plans to veto. Hoping to move on to a bill without limits, the president plans to meet with congressional leaders on Wednesday.

"He does feel positive and optimistic that we will get an acceptable bill,'' Snow said – unable to predict when the bill will arrive from Capitol Hill for the promised veto.

"It's now been passed for five days,'' Snow said. "We're not sure why it's been so difficult to convey it one mile up Pennsylvania Avenue… They passed it five days ago… I could walk down and pick it up today…

"The president understands that people wanted to make a political statement – fine,'' Snow said. "Let's go ahead and get on with this and get the bill passed'' to the White House.

Snow's message for Congress: "A clear veto message has been out for over a month… A symbolic vote has taken place… Come back and do your real work.''

And, so it, seems it's business as usual again at the White House.

Source : http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/