By Nat Hentoff

Presidential press secretary Tony Snow is certainly personable. As former Bill Clinton press secretary Mike McCurry says: “Tony has chilled the White House press corps, and that,” McCurry told the New York Post, “is some Snow job, if you ask me.” But Snow has also been a credible journalist – including after he served as a speechwriter and media adviser for President George H.W. Bush.

Snow has also been a successful syndicated columnist, as well as appearing regularly in USA Today and stints as editorial-page editor of the Detroit News and The Washington Times. Most recently, he’s worked as a host and commentator at the Fox News Channel. I’ve long respected his work and recognize that a presidential spokesman cannot publicly rebut his boss.

However, if Snow intends to eventually return to journalism, there are limits to how much credibility capital he can spend in his present job.

On June 7, he assured this nation and the world: “The United States does not condone torture. Furthermore, we will not agree to send anybody to a nation or place that practices torture.”

That’s like saying, with a straight face, that the Earth is flat. On July 5, Italian prosecutors arrested two Italian intelligence officials on charges of complicity with the CIA kidnapping of an imam, Hussan Mustafa Nasr, from a street in Milan – resulting in the CIA “rendition” of Nasr to Egypt, where he was tortured.