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A Saturday front-pager in the New York Times focused on Treasury Secretary John Snow and why he's still around. The piece was as bizarre as Snow's situation -- he dutifully continues to serve even though it seems obvious to everyone that the Bush White House would like to replace him ASAP. So why hasn't it replaced him? "Largely because the White House has been unable to find a replacement, administration officials say." Isn't this, then, the real story? Who, pray tell, has been approached and turned the President down?

Meanwhile, it took this report to get out sterling economic news the N.Y. Times would otherwise have never conveyed, given how well the news might reflect on the Bush economy.

Thus, John J. Castellani, president of the Business Roundtable and someone who knows Snow well, is quoted as saying: "This is an economy that by any statistical measure would be the envy of any administration of any party...."

Pat Toomey, president of the Club for Growth, credits Snow, according to the report, "for trumpeting President Bush's tax-cutting, 'which has been the biggest cause of these good economic times.'"

If there is one complaint about Snow, is that he hasn't done more to talk up this economic success and seen to it that Bush gets the credit -- though how one does that after being consigned to limbo is anybody's guess. Still, it is amusing to see the Times join in this criticism of Snow for not being more boastful about "some of this administration's successes -- low unemployment, a healthy stock market, tax cuts." Are we all supply-siders now?

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