Snow says Treasury secretary job subject for Bush and him

US Treasury's Snow says serves at Bush's pleasure
Fri Apr 7, 2006 10:18 AM ET

WASHINGTON, April 7 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow said on Friday that his future in the position would depend on private conversations between himself and President George W. Bush.

Speaking on CNBC television, Snow declined to comment on press reports that Goldman Sachs chief executive Henry Paulson may replace him.

Asked whether he intended to serve as Treasury secretary for the remainder of Bush's second term, Snow said: "I thank you for the inquiry, but that's a subject for me and the president. As all cabinet secretaries (do), I serve at the pleasure of the president. I'm honored and privileged to hold this post but that's really a private conversation with the president of the United States."

Snow said he was heartened by Bush's remarks earlier this week that Snow "has been a valuable member of my administration". "It's nice to have your boss endorse you. I appreciated that vote of confidence from the president," Snow said. He said discussions with Bush regarding his future are private conversations and wouldn't be made public.

http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=economicNews&storyID=2006-04-07T141903Z_01_WAT005241_RTRIDST_0_ECONOMY-SNOW-URGENT.XML

speech that we keep hearing every week.

Am I the only one who's not getting this?

The president seems to think the economy is doing great, and in the aggregate it is. In fact it's the only thing that is arguably going well right now. So why is Snow getting fired?

It's been going around for months that Snow wants out of the job. There is no policy apparatus in this Administration, everything is run by the political operation i.e. Rove. So the Sec. Treas. is just a figurehead and anyone would get sick of that.

But the way the media are playing this, Bush is firing Snow against his will. Why?

I think it's a deliberate ploy to make it look like Bush is shaking up his staff. All sides are demanding big changes in the Administration. Bush won't do what's necessary to regain the public's trust, he's too weak. So when someone wants to quit, there's an opportunity to make it look like Bush is firing someone. And that is what is happening with Snow.

Why didn't they do this with Card? He's too close to the president, it's much easier to do this with an outsider like Snow.

They were discussing John Snow on the Al Franken show about 3 weeks ago. They said that Snow was involved in the Dubai ports deal. Apparently, he made about $100 million off that deal, or some other deal. Before that, Snow made millions in selling off US ports to other foreign entities. So the guy's loaded. Of course, the deal went sour so they're probably looking for someone to blame.

Here's my guess

a) Snow has a lot of money to spend. He wants to go to Maui, order a Mai-Tai and enjoy the scenery.

b) There could be something happening with the money supply. The Fed recently decided not to publish changes in the M3 quantities.

This presidency is not exactly a huge success. They probably ALL want to bail, but they can't.