1115.org

(1)
Tony Snow has been forced to give up his job as White House press secretary because it put him in the poor house, and Dana Perino is taking over.

I don’t know which half of that sentence is funnier.

Here’s the reason Snow has given for his departure:

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.”

So a family of five cannot live on $168,000 a year plus pretty handsome benefits? Or should we be asking:

Where does your money go, Tony Snow?
Are you saying yes to things to which you should say no?

(A sad day when Tony Snow inspires me to verse.)

As for why Dana Perino becoming press secretary is sad-funny beyond belief, check out this, this and this.

On June 25, I wrote:

How many lies will it take till they know, that too many lies have been told? We’re talking sheer fabrications here, flat out just making things up. Perino has done it over and over again. And the White House is obviously okay with it.

So now we find, they’re not just okay with it, in the sense of tolerating it, they reward such flat-out lying by official spokesmen.

Not that we have any right to be surprised. Perino’s elevation to Press Secretary makes exactly as much sense as Condi Rice’s elevation to Secretary of State did.

(2)
Here’s a different take on Snow’s “financial difficulties” story.

Let’s go ahead and grant that once a man and his family become used to a certain lifestyle, there’s nothing wrong with deciding to maintain that lifestyle after taking a lower-paying White House job. So no more snark about $168,000 not being enough for a family of five to live on.

But why did Snow take a loan that would only see them through till September 2007? Or even if he didn’t foresee how much they would spend in the 16 months that he’s been the press secretary, why doesn’t he just take another loan now to tide them over the next few months?

His future job prospects are certainly rosy enough. In just a few months he’d be pulling down the big bucks again. Arguably, he’d make a lot more money than he used to before. Not only is he a much bigger name now as a media personality, he’s also a Republican party superstar, whose speaking fees alone will be enough to support several families of five in relative affluence.

Not even Snow (or Perino) can argue that it would be difficult or financially imprudent for Snow to take out another small loan.

So why is Tony resigning now? If it’s not the cancer, and it’s not the money, then maybe it wasn’t his decision, after all? Also, given how good a job he has done of lying for the President, it’s hard to imagine he was fired for cause. Which leaves what? He wasn’t asked to resign to make way for a protegé of Karl Rove (unless there’s an undercover Rove-Perino connection that everyone has missed). Nor was it to make way for a Dick Cheney acolyte (similar caveat).

So are we to understand that Perino has successfully engineered a palace coup, all by her pretty little self? Has she, in turn, been saying yes to propositions to which she should be saying no? (Wouldn’t that be a pretty little scandal, though?)