Bush's Press Secretary, Tony Snow, To Step Down

After a little more than a year on the job, President Bush's press secretary Tony Snow will be stepping down, as early as next month. Snow has recently battled a recurrence of cancer and is currently undergoing chemotherapy treatment.

Snow had surgery in February of this year for a cancerous growth that had spread from his colon to his liver. He was back at work as Press Secretary within 5 weeks of the surgery, and has repeatedly stated he's in good health. There is no word on whether his health could be a factor in his leaving, although his appearance shows a marked decline from just a year ago when he first took the job. Snow has not officially stated he is stepping down, although he did make a comment indicating he would not be able to continue due to "financial reasons". Sources have suggested his financial problems could be due in part to the pay cut he took as Press Secretary, and the fact that he has children who will be preparing for college soon. There were other reports that Chief of Staff Josh Bolten told senior White House staffers that they should plan to leave before Labor Day if they could not stay until President Bush leaves office in January 2009. When President Bush announced Tony Snow as his new Press Secretary in April 2006, there were comments about Snow's previous criticism of Bush, to which Bush responded:

He's not afraid to express his own opinions. For those of you who have read his columns and listened to his radio show, he sometimes has disagreed with me. I asked him about those comments, and he said, "You should have heard what I said about the other guy." I like his perspective, I like the perspective he brings to this job, and I think you're going to like it, too.

Snow has held two positions at the White House, his first for the elder President Bush as chief speech writer and Deputy Assistant of Media Affairs, before his job as Press Secretary. Between those two jobs, Snow worked in both radio and TV for such programs as "The Rush Limbaugh Show" and for National Public Radio. He had his own talk radio program, "The Tony Snow Show", and was a regular on various Fox News programs.