Snow's on way out; Rove's gone

WASHINGTON — White House press secretary Tony Snow will leave this month to devote time to writing, speaking and playing a more active public role in combating cancer, a disease he has confronted for three roller-coaster years.

Dana Perino, the principal deputy press secretary, will take Snow's place Sept. 14, the first time President Bush has chosen a woman as voice of the White House.

Snow, battling a recurrence of colon cancer he had hoped was in remission when he became the president's chief spokesman in April 2006, said it is not the disease but the financial burden his work has placed on his family that is forcing him to leave.

While paid $168,000 a year as press secretary, that salary is far less than Snow, a father of three who has fought cancer since 2005, made as a host for the Fox News Channel and Fox News Radio.

"Cancer has nothing to do with this," Snow said Friday of his decision.

"I ran out of money," he said. "I made more money when I was in my previous career. ... We took out a loan when I came to the White House, and that loan is now gone."

While planning some well-paying public-speaking engagements and occasional TV and radio work, Snow, 52, said he hopes to devote his time to a book on "how you deal with sickness."

Bush, congratulating Snow for taking on "a big job with courage," said that now, "One, he'll battle cancer and win. And secondly, he'll be a solid contributor to society." Bush finished with an unusually personal nod to his departing aide: "I love you."

Perino, 35, who has substituted often for Snow since his cancer returned in March, is "a smart, capable person," said Bush, looking at reporters in the pressroom. "She can handle you all."

Snow is the latest in a long line of senior Bush advisers to leave before the end of the president's second term. Friday was White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove's last day. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced his resignation this week. Former White House counselor Dan Bartlett, White House attorney Harriet Miers, budget director Rob Portman, political director Sara Taylor, deputy national-security adviser J.D. Crouch and Meghan O'Sullivan, a national-security adviser who worked on Iraq, also have stepped down.

Snow, who said in March that doctors had discovered his colon cancer had recurred and spread to his liver, recently finished months of chemotherapy and will face another treatment and then periodic CAT scans. The most recent scan, he said, was encouraging.

Asked about his long-range plans, Snow, facing seasoned correspondent Helen Thomas, seated in the front row and center of the press room, said: "When I'm your age, I want to be sitting in the front row making life a living hell for a presidential press secretary."

Material from McClatchy Newspapers is included in this report.