The best press secretary this president has had has announced he is going to step down before the end of the current presidency.

White House press secretary Tony Snow said Friday he’ll leave sometime before the end of the Bush presidency because of financial pressures.

He declined to say when he would depart, but that, “I’m going to stay as long as I can.”

The 52-year-old Snow, the father of three children, earns $168,000 as an assistant to the president but made considerably more as a conservative pundit and syndicated talk-show host on Fox News Radio. He was named press secretary on April 26, 2006.

The White House has been shaken by the resignations of some of President Bush’s closest aides. Political strategist Karl Rove announced Monday that he would leave at the end of the month. Longtime Bush adviser Dan Bartlett left earlier this year and Andrew Card left earlier as Bush’s chief of staff.

Bush’s term ends on Jan. 20, 2009.

“I will not be able to make it to the end of this administration, just financially,” Snow said. “This job has been such a pleasant surprise in how much I like it. I love it.”

It seems a person has to be independently wealthy to serve the government.

I hope he stays as long as he can and then lands a good job in the private sector after.