By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 27, 2007 12:46 PM

The daily combat at the White House briefing has become a television show, and Tony Snow seemed instantly at home behind the podium.

Armed with a decade of experience as a Fox News host, Snow did more than glibly play defense. He seized on opportunities to score rhetorical points for the administration. His sound bites showed up more often on the evening news. He appeared on the morning shows and the cable shows and did plenty of live shots from the White House lawn.

Snow's combative style is entertaining -- he knows how to hold an audience -- but also contributed to rising tensions with the press corps. There has been an escalation of sorts as Snow has defended the administration's stance on the Iraq war, the firing of U.S. Attorneys and other controversies and reporters have repeatedly challenged him.

Snow has frequently crossed swords with NBC's David Gregory, and last year accused the correspondent of acting like a partisan. Snow later apologized. But last week, when CBS's Harry Smith pressed him about President Bush's insistence that his aides testify in the Justice Department controversy in private and without transcripts, Snow said Smith sounded more like a partisan than a reporter.

Despite the verbal jousting, the affable Snow has gotten along well with White House correspondents, at least when the cameras aren't on, and many reporters today were rattled by the news that the spokesman's cancer has returned.