The conservative writer and commentator, Tony Snow, who cheerfully sparred with reporters in the White House briefing room as President George W. Bush's press secretary, has died of colon cancer, as reported by Fox News on Saturday. He was 53 years old.

The Houston Chronicle reports that, "Snow, who served as the first host of the television news program 'Fox News Sunday' from 1996 to 2003, would later say that in the Bush administration he was enjoying ' the most exciting, intellectually aerobic job I'm ever going to have.'"