President George W. Bush announced Friday that Tony Snow is stepping down as White House press secretary on September 14th. The President said he was sad to see Snow go, added: "And I don’t know what he’s going to do – I’m not sure he does yet, either. But whatever it is, it’s going to be – two things: One, he’ll battle cancer and win. And secondly, he’ll be a solid contributor to society." Snow made it clear in recent interviews that his decision to leave the administration was purely economic – he needs to earn more for his family. While 168,000 may sound like a pretty decent paycheck, he no doubt had an additional digit when hosting his talk show on Fox News Radio and doing on-camera work as well for Fox News Channel. Although Snow suffered a recurrence of colon cancer in March, four months of chemotherapy produced good results on CAT scans and MRIs, so Snow is now on "maintenance chemo" and living a normal life. President Bush promoted deputy press secretary Dana Perino, who got on-the-job experience during Snow’s recent treatment, to the top job in the White House press office.
RBR/TVBR observation: The timing should be good for Tony Snow’s return to the private sector. Presidential election years are audience gold mines for talk radio, so a new Tony Snow show should get off the ground just in time to cash in. No doubt he’ll also do some TV as well. He may talk to others as well, but we see a return to Fox News Radio and Fox News Channel as most likely.
