BUSH CABINET Snow survives secretary shuffle in White House

After a 15-minute meeting with the president, the treasury secretary agreed to stay.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
WASHINGTON -- President Bush asked embattled Treasury Secretary John Snow on Wednesday to stay on the job in the new administration, stunning the nation's capital, where rumors were rife that Snow would soon join the long line of secretaries leavingBush's Cabinet.
Separately, Anthony Principi is stepping down as secretary of Veterans Affairs, a senior administration official said Wednesday. Principi becomes the ninth of 15 Cabinet members to depart.
But Snow's retention ended the last big question about Bush's second-term Cabinet. Snow agreed to stay after a 15-minute meeting with Bush in the Oval Office, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.
"The president is pleased Secretary Snow agreed to continue to serve," McClellan said. "We have a strong economic team."
Rumors end
The announcement ended speculation that Snow, 65, a Bush loyalist and former chief of CSX railroad, would be ditched in favor of someone better able to push Bush's second-term agenda of revamping Social Security and overhauling the tax code.
The announcement also ended an aggressive behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign by pro-Snow conservatives after unidentified White House aides repeatedly leaked word to the news media that Snow would be pushed out.
"It was a freelance leaker seeking to start a forest fire and it failed," said Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, an anti-tax group with close ties to the White House. "Why it wasn't shut down [by the White House] the day after, I don't know. But all's well that ends well. Snow is a tremendous asset."
"We worked the phones, made media appearances, called the White House, called Capitol Hill," said Stephen Moore, president of the Club for Growth, a conservative pressure group with influence on economic affairs. "We talked to folks in the [White House] political office, [Karl] Rove's office. I think the White House might have gotten spooked about alienating conservatives."
News reports
BeforeWednesday, Snowappeared to be Washington's equivalent of a dead man walking. The Washington Post quoted an unidentified senior administration official nine days ago as saying that Snow could stay in the Treasury job as long as he wanted, provided it wasn't very long.
That was widely taken as a direct signal for Snow to resign. When he didn't, shortly afterward the New York Times wrote that Snow was all but out, spawning intense public discussion of who would replace him.
Speculation was rampant that Snow would be succeeded by White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, former Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, or a Wall Street giant such as Goldman Sachs chief executive Hank Paulson. Card denied vigorously Tuesday that he was interested in the job.
The White House did little to quell the rumors. Administration officials said last week that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld would return for Bush's second term, but they stopped well short of that when asked about Snow's fate. Asked Tuesday if Snow would stay on, McClellan said only that "we appreciate the great job that Secretary Snow is doing."
McClellan said Wednesday that administration officials bucked Snow up privately as the rumor mill churned.
"When some of the rumors were floating in the media, Andy Card spoke with him on a couple of occasions and told him not to pay attention to them," McClellan said.