Is It Strange That Tony Snow is Taking a Pay Cut?

This morning on NPR's Morning Edition, host Renee Montagne pointed out to the radio network's White House reporter, Davide Greene, that as pundit Tony Snow takes the job of press secretary for President Bush, he'll also be taking a pay cut. What, Montagne asked understandably enough, is "the upside" for Snow?

Greene's response though, wasn't quite so understandable to me. He said that one might consider what Snow is doing to be akin to a high-powered executive taking a lower-paying CEO position in a floundering company. The implication: Snow's motivation for becoming press secretary is to prop up a President who, the poll numbers do indicate, is less popular and trusted with the American people than he ever has been.

No doubt the challenge of that appeals to Snow. But I think that there's a more basic reason, one that goes beyond Snow's conservatism and his past ties to the Bush family and to new White House chief of staff Josh Bolten.

Simply put, the reason Tony Snow is willing to take a pay cut in order to take the thankless job of presidential press secretary is that he loves his country.

Millions of people across the country can identify with that motive, no matter how old school it may be deemed. And they're willing to make sacrifices, big and small, for the sake of America.

It's true of Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives; of people who are grateful for the reality of America and people who believe in the promise of America; and of people who favor the war in Iraq and those who are opposed love their country.

These millions won't find love for country a strange motive for Tony Snow to take a job that entails a pay cut.

In fact, they would likely agree with pundit Joe Klein, author of the new Politics Lost: How American Democracy Was Trivialized by People Who Think You're Stupid, that one of the major failings of the current President Bush is that in the wake of the September 11 attacks, with the country in a desperate war against forces bent on destroying America, the President didn't tap into the love we have for our country to ask for sacrifices from us.

I always remember the story of how President Lyndon Johnson convinced Chief Justice Earl Warren to head the commission that investigated the assassination of President Kennedy. Warren was reluctant. He was old and had a busy enough schedule at the Supreme Court. But in one of his patented wooing sessions, Johnson told Warren that he had once seen an old photograph of Warren, wearing the uniform of his country as a young soldier. "Your country needs you now," Johnson told the chief justice. Warren took the job.

This love of country exists among all sorts of people around America. And it's one of the things that makes this country special. Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, it seems that every house and public building sprouted an American flag. I asked several exchange students of my kids' acquaintance--from places like Indonesia and Germany--if all this American patriotism made them feel uncomfortable. "No," was their universal response, "we wish there were more patriotism like it in our countries."

We all know the deficiencies of a "my country, right or wrong" approach. Blind allegiance to one's country can lead to gas chambers and holocausts. But patriotism to a country that believes in freedom and mutual responsibility and in righting its own wrongs after honest self-appraisal, is a good thing.

It's just possible that Tony Snow believes that in helping change the direction of the Bush Administration, he'll be serving his country. I think that most of us would be willing to take a pay cut if we thought we could give back to a country that has given so much to us. We all would consider that a decided up-side.

[Thanks to both Hugh Hewitt and Rick Moore for linking to this post.]

[Thanks also to Real Clear Politics for linking to this piece.]

[Further thanks go to Joe Gandelman at The Moderate Voice for linking to this post.]