Speeches and books ahead, Snow says

White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, on the job 16 months, said Friday that he was leaving his post in two weeks “because I ran out of money.”

The former Fox News commentator, who was treated for colon cancer in 2005 and underwent surgery and chemotherapy this year after a recurrence, said he planned to make money by giving speeches and writing books.

The first book topic, he said, was likely to be “on how you deal with sickness.”

President Bush named one of Snow’s deputies, Dana Perino, as the press secretary. She will be the fourth in the nearly seven years of the Bush presidency.

The president, visiting the White House press room at the start of Snow’s regular daily briefing for reporters, said of his spokesman: “He’s smart. He’s capable. He’s witty. He’s able to talk about issues in a way that the American people can understand.”

Similarly, he called Perino “a smart, capable person who is able to spell out the issues of the day in a way that people listening on TV can understand.”

Snow joins several other senior administration officials who have announced their departures in recent weeks, among them Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales and one of the president’s closest aides, Karl Rove, whose last day at the White House was Friday. Dan Bartlett, who like Gonzales and Rove had worked for Bush since he was governor of Texas, resigned as the president’s counselor two months ago.

Snow, 52, his face gaunt, his hair thinned and grayed by his battle with cancer, called the press secretary’s job “a dream” and “a blast.”

Throughout his tenure in a job that regularly involves 14-hour days, Snow has been one of the most visible figures in the administration.

He has defended the president’s policies in Iraq, fended off attacks on Gonzales and responded for the last eight months to the challenges posed by the Democratic majority in Congress.

The spokesman, who is married and has three children, makes $168,000 a year at the White House -- less, he said, than he made in his previous career as a television commentator and public speaker.

“I made the decision not to say to my wife and kids, ‘You know, we’ve finally saved up all this money and done these things, and you’re just going to have to give them away so Daddy can work at the White House,’ ” he said. “We took out a loan when I came to the White House, and that loan’s now gone. So I’m going to have to pay the bills.”

But his health was the backdrop to Friday’s announcement.

The treatments have had a noticeable effect on Snow while he has been in the job.

“A lot of folks have been thinking, ‘Oh, come on, it’s really the cancer, isn’t it?’ No, cancer has nothing to do with this decision,” Snow said, adding that the tumors that could not be removed by surgery last spring had not grown, and no new ones had shown up.

Bush, who said he took pleasure in watching Snow spar with reporters, said: “He’ll battle cancer and win. . . . I love you, and I wish you all the best.”

Snow, occasionally looking serious, but mostly grinning, broke into a broad smile at that.

Perino, 35, a former Capitol Hill press secretary and public relations executive, will take over from Snow on Sept. 14, at the end of a week in which the White House must deliver to Congress a key progress report on the Iraq war.

During Bush’s first term, Perino was the spokeswoman at the Council on Environmental Quality, a White House office that provides policy advice.

Snow “leaves very big shoes to fill, and I only wear a size 6,” said Perino, who at “almost 5-foot-1” had to pull out a riser from beneath the presidential lectern to “see over the top.”

“He’s given us a lot of laughter, even at 6:30 a.m.,” when the press office meets, she said, adding: “Everyone who’s watched you fight this cancer is inspired.”

Snow, who succeeded Scott McClellan and Ari Fleischer, was a White House speechwriter when Bush’s father was president.

Bush named Snow press secretary on April 26, 2006.

Snow pledged then to work with reporters “to figure out what you think we can do better.” White House relations with the media had gone sour when questions were raised about the underlying reasons for going to war in Iraq and the failure to find weapons of mass destruction.

In a White House filled with Bush friends and loyalists from Texas, Snow was the first outsider installed in a top position since Joshua B. Bolten had taken over as chief of staff. At Fox, Snow had called Bush “impotent” and “something of an embarrassment.” Snow was the first journalist in more than 30 years to serve as White House press secretary. (Ron Nessen, who had worked for NBC News, was President Ford’s spokesman.)

Snow started the public affairs talk show “Fox News Sunday.”

For several years, he hosted the news program “Weekend Live” and “The Tony Snow Show,” a daily talk show on Fox News Radio.

Before that, he wrote editorials for newspapers, including the Washington Times.

james.gerstenzang@latimes.com