Bush picks Fox News host as press secretary

WASHINGTON - US President George W. Bush has picked Fox News Radio host Tony Snow as his new White House press secretary and is expected to announce the choice as early as Wednesday, a Republican official said today.

Snow will replace Scott McClellan, who announced his resignation last week as part of a staff shake-up engineered by new White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten aimed at reviving Bush's presidency.

Sources familiar with the situation said Snow wrestled with the decision for several days on whether to take the gruelling job. A former speechwriter for former President George Bush, he was treated for colon cancer last year.

Fox News said on its website Snow was given a clean bill of health by his oncologist Tuesday, following a CAT scan and other tests that were undertaken last Thursday.

He was said to have been waiting for the all-clear from his doctors before accepting the job.

A conservative pundit, Snow, 50, has been host of Fox News Radio's "The Tony Snow Show" and for a time was anchor of the "Fox News Sunday" program.

The Washington Post said Snow decided to accept after top officials assured him he would not be just a spokesman but an active participant in administration policy debates.

The Post quoted sources as saying Snow views himself as well-positioned to ease the tensions between the Bush White House and the press corps because he understands both politics and journalism.

Bolten has embarked on a shake-up of Bush's senior staff in a drive to breathe new life into Bush's presidency and rebound from job approval ratings that, according to a CNN poll, have dipped to an all-time low of 32 per cent.

Last week, in addition to McClellan's resignation, the shake-up led to senior Bush political adviser Karl Rove giving up his day-to-day policy role to focus on helping Republicans retain control of both houses of the US Congress in November mid-term elections.

Snow, a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, will represent a rare case in which a Washington journalist takes over as the White House spokesman. The job will come with a pay cut, down to about US$161,000 a year.

- REUTERS