Snow: Loyalty to Bush Means “To Do Our Jobs”

From today’s press briefing:

Q: Tony, you had said that politics and loyalty didn’t play a part in this.

Snow: Yes, and let me… you know, there’s been a lot of conversation about loyalty. So let me — I don’t want to — we’ll just begin with a caveat: I do not know precisely what Kyle Sampson had in mind when he used the term.

But let me tell you how the term applies in this White House, which is that certainly we all serve at the pleasure of the president. We’re loyal to the president in that sense. But the president’s charge to each one of us is to do our jobs — to do our jobs, to perform the public trust.

That also means to follow the principles and the priorities of the administration.

When it comes to the administration of justice, the president lays down broad guidelines, when it comes to U.S. attorneys, broad prosecutorial guidelines. Those guidelines may shift from district to district. There are 93 around that country that have different priorities.

But if somebody has difficulty, or somebody decides, for reasons of conscience or whatever, that they disagree with the key priority, whether it be like something like the death penalty or pornography statutes or whatever, that’s certainly a suitable basis for review.

But, again, the most important principle here is people do serve at the pleasure of the president.

It seems that Snow’s polishing up his riff on loyalty, first auditioned during this morning’s gaggle.

Update: More below….

In response to a follow-up:

Q Tony, real quick, back to the loyalty question. In that Kyle Sampson memo, he says, “The vast majority of U.S. attorneys, 80 to 85 percent, I would guess, are doing a great job, are loyal Bushies,” et cetera. Does the President believe that a U.S. attorney is successful if he’s a “loyal Bushie”?

SNOW: Again, you’re going to have to — what you’re trying to do is to get the President to respond to a characterization by Kyle Sampson. I’ve already told you what the definition of loyalty is in this White House, which is to do your job — to understand that it is an honor to be in the White House, and an honor to serve the American people, and you treat that as a trust. Loyalty to the President means doing your job and faithfully carrying out the priorities of the administration.

I think I laid it out, when you’re talking about U.S. attorneys, that means following the priorities within the Department of Justice; it means doing your job — doing it faithfully, all.