Snow to Remain in Treasury Post

WASHINGTON — President Bush asked Treasury Secretary John Snow today to stay on the job, ending more than a week of rampant speculation and high-level leaks suggesting the White House was preparing to sack him.

Snow, 65, will continue to serve as the nation’s chief financial officer during Bush’s second term, making him one of the few confirmed survivors of the president’s first-term Cabinet.

So far, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is the only other Cabinet secretary who has received a public invitation to stay on board.

“The president met with him this afternoon,” White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said, disclosing Bush’s conference with the Treasury secretary. “He asked Secretary Snow to continue serving in a second term, and the president is pleased that Secretary Snow agreed to continue his service. He is a valuable member of our economic team.”

The announcement was a victory for Snow and his allies, who had waged an intense lobbying campaign to persuade administration skeptics that the former railroad executive was still the best man to head the president’s economic team.

“We had a full-court press to keep him,” said Stephen Moore, president of the conservative Club for Growth. “There were a few people in the White House who wanted him out, but common sense prevailed.”