it's tough to be a feline. or a spinhack.

[lagilman]

Poor Boomerang. He just fell off the windowsill in a most sudden and undignified manner, and is now -- at a safe distance across the room -- staring at the window as though it attacked him.

And in news of the Give Me A Break...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- White House press secretary Tony Snow will step down from his position as early as next month, sources inside and outside the Bush administration told CNN on Friday.

When contacted by CNN about his possible departure, Snow said, "I'm not making any announcement."

Snow told conservative talk-show host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday that "financial reasons" may prevent him for serving the remainder of his boss's presidency.

"I'm not going to be able to go the distance, but that's primarily for financial reasons." Snow said. "I've told people when my money runs out, then I've got to go."

According to The Washington Post, Snow makes $168,000 as the White House spokesman.
-----------------

*rolls eyes endlessly*

Comments

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

To be fair, I've got to think that being able to tell the lies that Snow and his predecessors have had to tell with a straight face probably should be worth much more that $168,000.

[lagilman]

I just want to know what he's doing with that salary, that his "money will run out." I know the Beltway is expensive but c'mon! If he doesn't have an expense account and major freebies, I don't know flack-dom.

[oneminutemonkey.livejournal.com]

No kidding! What the heck is he doing that can't be satisfied with that kind of pay? Sheesh.

Sounds to me like a polite excuse for "I'm outta here before God strikes me down with lightning..." or something. Abandoning a sinking ship? :>

[debg.livejournal.com]

Well - I loathe Tony Snow with the power of a million suns, but as a cancer suvivor, I have to wonder: it is just possible that he's got medical bills that even his Halliburton Prime Coverage or whatever these NeoCon pondscum give their minions don't cover?

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

I was going to say...perhaps the White House health plan sucks more than we would have expected.

[lagilman]

See my comment below. He thinks insurance will be easier to get when he's unemployed? Dude. Here's your coffee, take a deep whiff.

[debg.livejournal.com]

No idea what he thinks. All I was doing was possibly answering your question. Cancer treatment is expensive.

But yeah, he's going to run out of dinero a lot faster without a job. His problem, not mine.

[bill-leisner.livejournal.com]

It's possible... though to be perfectly honest, I'm still going to feel sorrier for the millions of cancer patients who aren't pulling down six figures a year, and don't have the option of giving up their insufficiently paying jobs to spend more time with their families (or go back to whoring for Faux News, whichever Snow has planned).

[debg.livejournal.com]

Um, since I *was* one of those cancer patients, I'm not arguing.

What I'm doing is responding to suri, who wanted to know what in the world that kind of dough isn't enough to cover. Long-term cancer care - whoever the hell the patient is - is expensive.

[wyldemusick.livejournal.com]

I wonder if we could get him to take Alberto Gonzales with him when he goes.

The terrible thought: whoever replaces Snow will be even worse.

[badgermirlacca.livejournal.com]

And "Let's Track Every Citizen" Chertoff, while he's at it.

[badgermirlacca.livejournal.com]

He has terminal cancer; apparently the White House has this... problem with health insurance!

[lagilman]

Uncharitable tho it may be of me, I can't find any great sympathy for someone working long-term in the upper levels of the Bush administration when they cry poverty/possible lack of insurance. He knew the devil was damned when he took up the dinner invite.

(since I spent much of today researching health insurance for freelancers, this is a REAL hot-hot button right now)

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

I didn't realize it was terminal. Perhaps he'd rather spend his last days doing something other than being the poster boy for The Shrub.

**I** would certainly want to spend my last days doing something else.

[bill-leisner.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen it stated anywhere that his cancer is terminal -- which isn't to say that it isn't terminal (cancer is not something one should underestimate), or that he's obligated to make such things public. But, what he has said is that his reason for leaving is because he's not making enough money, plain and simple.

Unless he's paying off medical bills...

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

...he should experiment with a budget and find out how most of the world lives.

On the other hand, if he can get paid for more, why not do it. We chase what we value.

[sfmarty.livejournal.com]

I think that he and Rove and a few others need the time to screw up the Democratic nominees.

[djonn]

What I'm reading is that Snow has three children nearing college age -- and putting three kids through any sort of private college would add up to enough money that even on $168K a year, I can see it looking very scary, especially if you're also trying to support a Beltway lifestyle and probably two residences, one in DC and one wherever home actually is. Now yes, he was apparently making a good deal more before he took the White House gig. But that dnesn't necessarily take in (a) the probable medical bills for the cancer treatments (the most relevant insurance could well be the Fox News package, not the White House plan -- and note that "syndicated op-ed columnist" counts either as self-employment or newsprint journalist, and neither of those gigs is notable for its quality insurance benefits), and (b) that he may not have been making really serious media-broadcaster money for all that long before taking the White House job.

In absolute terms, he's undoubtedly much better off than many of us Struggling Freelancers[tm]. But in context, I suspect the numbers are not nearly as rosy as they look from our end of the telescope.

[lagilman]

I still am not feeling any sort of sympathy for him -- my parents put three kids through private college [with loans and work-study, admitedly] and dealt with various medical crisis on the salaries of mid-level managers, one of whom worked in the not-for-profit sector.

As to "our end of the telescope -- I wasn't always a struggling freelancer. I know exactly how far a six figure income can go, and trust me, it's far enough that he has no damned right to be whining about "when the money's gone." Somehow, no matter how they have to economize like regular mortals, I doubt he or his family will end up under a bridge or trying to shake loose a few extra dollars to pay the bills on time.

(and if they do, he needs to kick his financial advisor. Hard. And if he didn't have one, the boot should go up his [and his spouse's] ass. Seriously. I have great sympathy for shit luck and bad breaks. Pissing away many years of a six figure income when you knew there were major expenses coming? Not so much.)

[djonn]

It's that "many years of a six-figure income" that I'm reluctant to assume.

It's hard to tell from the Wikipedia entry, but many of his broadcast media credits (not all) have the look of being structured as part-time gigs that could well carry a lot more prestige than actual cash, and I'd be surprised if he ever drew anything like a six-figure salary from any of the print media jobs, columnist gigs included.

At a guess, I would say that the first year he cracked the $100K mark would have been 1996, when he began hosting Fox News Today on Sunday mornings -- that plus the print columns should probably have done it. And it's clear that he was doing much better dating from 2003, when he got his own talk-radio show -- which went away when he took Dubya's job offer, at what he's said was a sharp pay cut. What I'm thinking, though, is that he seems to have been doing so many different things starting in the '90s that he may well have been essentially self-employed for most of that time, and relying on himself for health care coverage (which may have been hard to come by, since . The joker in that deck is the op-ed syndication deal -- if I were the Detroit News, I'd have put Snow on staff before that was nailed down and pocketed the lion's share of the proceeds. That would presumably have given him insurance benefits, at least, though not necessarily good ones.

Then, too, I don't see Snow's stated reason for departure as whining; it seems to me like rare candor. (It's the effect of hearing it repeated by eleven dozen news outlets that makes it sound whiny, I'd say.) Mind, I also don't disagree that Snow may well have managed his money badly -- though again, much depends on how long he's had that six-figure income to manage.

Nor would I presume to draw direct parallels between Snow's individual situation and any other individual family's, not on the limited knowledge we have. My observation is simply that the limited information we do have suggests to me that Snow's finances are likely to be far more complex than one might think at first glance.

[fakefrenchie.livejournal.com]

Hell, as someone making less than 25 000 per annum, 100 000 looks pretty damn good. Even if what you say is true, he has been making a 6 figure salary for over 10 years. Multiply the part of his salary that exceeds mine by 10 and you get 750 000, minimum. Now I know that could all be blow on a Mac Mansion, but…I still find it hard to sympathize with "when the money runs out" arguments.

[quarkwiz.livejournal.com]

All the intelligent commentary has been made already, so I'll just add--if both of us put together were making that kind of money, looking at it from our current POV, we'd feel rich. But neither of us ::touch wood:: is a recovering cancer patient, and our four dependents only look for crunchies, gooshyfood, and cuddles, not college tuition. So.