Posted on 08/17/2007 1:32:28 PM PDT by nuconvert
Financial pressures force Snow departure
By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent
WASHINGTON - White House press secretary Tony Snow said Friday he'll leave sometime before the end of the Bush presidency because of financial pressures.
He declined to say when he would depart, but that, "I'm going to stay as long as I can."
The 52-year-old Snow, the father of three children, earns $168,000 as an assistant to the president but made considerably more as a conservative pundit and syndicated talk-show host on Fox News Radio. He was named press secretary on April 26, 2006.
The White House has been shaken by the resignations of some of President Bush's closest aides. Political strategist Karl Rove announced Monday that he would leave at the end of the month. Longtime Bush adviser Dan Bartlett left earlier this year and Andrew Card left earlier as Bush's chief of staff.
Bush's term ends on Jan. 20, 2009.
"I will not be able to make it to the end of this administration, just financially," Snow said. "This job has been such a pleasant surprise in how much I like it. I love it."
Snow has been undergoing chemotherapy after doctors discovered a recurrence of colon cancer in March. He said the last of eight scheduled chemotherapy treatments would be on Friday. On Monday he will have a CAT scan to evaluate his progress.
It probably wasn’t a salary reduction as much as it is the cost of raising a family in and around DC AND undergoing chemo.
I hope Tony will resume his radio and pundit career soon - he never left any doubt he loved it.
The loss of the White House is our gain in this instance!
I doubt he planned on another round of cancer treatments. His insurance may not cover all of his care and that adds up quickly.
If he wants to tell part of his reason for leaving and keep part to himself, that’s his business.
My husband did...but he quit that job and now we are on our own.
We had 100% coverage through Execucare for dental, health, perscriptions and eyes. We were spoiled, now it’s the real world.
If you knew you had a 75% probability of being dead in the next 5 years, and could make $1.5 million for your wife and children per year vs. $168,000...wouldn't you do it?
FYI: Buchanan returned to the White House in 1985, serving until 1987 as White House Communications Director for Ronald Reagan.
Yep, and thanks to Tony's boss, many of them can and will lose their homes because Bush killed a medical exemption to his draconian banruptcy "reform" law.
If the report is true I believe he has been told by his doctor's that his liver is done and he has less than 2 years to live.
Anybody that buys that story, maybe interested in some bridge stock I have for sale.
Ah yes...sound bites for hilary care
I don't know about that ... maybe he could handle his old mortgage, and maybe he could handle his old mortgage along with rent on his DC digs... But if you pile on some big medical bills, I'd guess that his financial obligations are eating him alive.
And maybe, just maybe, he's worried enough about his lifespan that he wants to put away a nest-egg for his kids.
He said that at the outset he would stay until the money was an issue.
What he did not know what that he would have another round of cancer.
He said this past weekend on CSpan in a Q & A with Brian Lamb that he won’t die of this cancer and that his last chemo is today.
It’s worth looking for on the CSpan schedule as he was very candid about his condition, his job and his family.
Good grief man, he has the same health coverage as any senator or congressman.
Tony may be lying to himself about his motivations. People with cancer often do that.
And finances really may be worrying him just as he said as he may want to provide better for his family given the real possibility he may not be around much longer.
God bless our dear Tony Snow.
Not only that, DU is just giddy about Snow's illness. They think it's really cool that he is suffering. Just like when Roberts had the seizure.
He must have made some really bad investments if his salary is an issue now, a scant two years later.
Does anybody know what stance Tony Snow had on illegal immigration? I thought he was against illegal immigration, and maybe that’s the reason he is resigning. He feels that the prez’s policy of amnesty for illegal aliens and the policy of making Canada, U.S., and Mexico into one nation is too much for him to support making it impossible for him to continue to spew the prez’s viewpoint on these subjects.
>>He said that at the outset he would stay until the money was an issue.<<
I didn’t know that - perhaps I jumped the gun on my conclusion.
Its the Chemo. It looks like his hair is about to go.
:-) No worries, gondramB. It’s not a test.
I am many things, but I am friendly.
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