A Fox-y New Spokesman

By Mike Allen

When Tony Snow came to the White House for lunch at the end of March, just after his friend Josh Bolten became chief of staff, the Fox News anchor marched up the front driveway. When he returned three weeks later, he used a back entrance to sneak in for a 45-min. chat with President George W. Bush, who last week named Snow his third White House press secretary. Snow, who told TIME he was attracted by the job's "put-up-or-shut-up factor," says that as host of a daily 3-hr. Fox radio show and a weekend Fox News Channel program, he knows how much easier it is to "sit on the outside and throw rocks."

Snow, 50, will replace don't-stray-from-the-message spokesman Scott McClellan as part of Bolten's staff shake-up. Republican officials expect the new guy to be more aggressive in selling Bush's policies, both behind the scenes and on camera. And though a Fox star becoming Bush's mouthpiece may sound like something out of a Tom Wolfe novel, even White House reporters seem enthusiastic, hoping that one of their own will pop the building's hermetic seal. (The last person to make the jump from reporter to White House press secretary was Ron Nessen during the Ford years.)

An occasional Bush critic, Snow says he was a liberal until he read Marx in college "and realized it was all indecipherable hokum." Colon cancer kept him off the air for eight weeks last year. During that time, says Snow, an attendee of Catholic and Episcopal churches, prayers by strangers increased his faith. He took the White House job after a scan of his vital organs came back "pristine."

Snow, who plays flute, sax and guitar in a seven-man band, will need similar versatility in his new role. It comes with the promise of a seat at the table in key meetings as well as access to the aides he needs to do his job. Presidential advisers say Snow will get more latitude than his predecessors, since Bush needs a better-armed advocate in tough times. "He understands, like I understand, that the press is vital to our democracy," Bush said in the briefing room. Snow plans to start briefing in mid-May dodging rocks instead of throwing them.