During this afternoon's press briefing with White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, a reporter asked about President Bush's reaction to the death of disgraced Enron founder Ken Lay.

The response, for lack of a better word, was "sad."

Q What has been the President's reaction to the death of Ken Lay?

SNOW: I really haven't talked to him about it. I'll give you my own personal reaction, which is when somebody dies you leave behind those who grieve and I think they deserve our compassion. But I don't know, what do you think would be the appropriate thing to say?

Q I don't know. I don't know him. The President was his friend, not me.

SNOW: No, the President has described Ken Lay as an acquaintance, and many of the President's acquaintances have passed on during his time in office. Again, I think -- it's sort of an interesting question, but not answerable by me.

From The Executive Editor's Desk
By Heather™

"Spin Spin Spin

Even at a solemn time, the administration was playing politics. Lay, whom Bush had ties with since at least 1990 and nicknamed "Kenny Boy," is officially dubbed an "acquaintance." Lay, who provided Enron's corporate jet for Bush during the 2000 presidential campaign, whose company was the top Bush donor from 1993 to 2001, whose company had 112 contacts with the Bush Administration in 2001 alone, including 40 contacts with the White House, who was a member of Vice President Cheney's clandestine Energy Task Force, and who apparently had various members of Bush's first cabinet on speed dial as Enron was imploding, was now an "acquaintance."

Dictionary.com gives an interesting example of how to use acquaintance: "I have trouble remembering the names of all my acquaintances." Yeah, that's the kind of relationship that Bush and "Kenny Boy" had.

Why does the administration and its spokespeople always try to spin things? Do they really think that there are votes to be gained, hearts to be won, opinions to be changed, by spinning Bush's relationship with Lay? Are they really so calculating -- or is it naive -- to believe that somehow Snow can give conservatives an angle to charge the reporter with "liberal media bias" for presuming the friendship?

Like I said, the best word to describe this is "sad."