Tony Snow Is Confused With Another Tony in Washington

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Oops. Wrong Tony!

Readers of the conservative Web site Townhall.com awoke today to a column critical of President Bush under the byline of newly appointed White House press secretary Tony Snow.
The subject was Mr. Bush's agreement with Democrats on the need for an investigation of fuel prices.

The writer said, "One of the things that always made me feel good in the morning was waking up and realizing I did not belong to the same political party as Chuck Schumer. It made me feel clean — even before I took a shower. But now, with my Republican president pulling a "full Schumer," even a series of showers will not help."

Oops. Turns out the column was by conservative columnist Tony Blankley, not Tony Snow. A correction soon appeared, though not before some of us at FOX News had read the column, and knowing Tony Snow's independent ways, assumed he had indeed written it.

‘Lucky’ to Have Tony

The Snow appointment has won bipartisan praise with the Senate's number two Democrat Dick Durbin saying the president is "lucky to have a man of Tony's caliber." Former Clinton White House counsel Lanny Davis called him "a man of integrity, a man of fairness and a man of substance." And David Gergen, who's sort of both Democrat and Republican, called Snow "a good man and a good choice."

Not Just Praise

Out on the left, however, on such Web sites as the Huffington Post and the Center for American Progress, commentator David Sirota called the Snow appointment "profoundly disturbing" and complaining of a "Soviet-state-run-media quality of trading in media badges for federal ID badges." As for Sirota, he's the former spokesman for Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee.

Slashers Sentenced

Three Democratic campaign workers and a congresswoman's son were sentenced to four to six months of jail time today for slashing tires outside a Bush-Cheney campaign office on election day back in 2004. The men had pleaded no contest after being charged with misdemeanor property damage.

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Michael Brennan said he wanted to make a public example of the men for tampering with voters' rights. But Congresswoman Gwen Moore says she's proud of her son, Sowande Omokunde, for accepting responsibility for what he did.

Dead Ringer?

Bill Clinton's office says artistic license is to blame for a painting of the former president in which his gold wedding band isn't visible. The portrait — unveiled on Monday at the Smithsonian — shows Clinton standing with his left hand on his hip and his index and middle fingers resting on his belt. But no wedding band is seen on his ring finger. The artist, Nelson Shanks, told the New York Post that he didn't think including the president's ring was necessary.

— FOX News' Dominique Pastre contributed to this report.