Mixed reviews for selection of Snow

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Jan 7, 2003 | by Jamie Dettmer

There has been mixed reaction to President George W. Bush's selection of John Snow, chairman of America's largest railroad company, to replace Paul O'Neill as Treasury Secretary. While Wall Street clearly is pleased to see the departure of the gaffe-prone O'Neill, there are fears that Snow is too similar in background to his predecessor. Wall Street had hoped the president wood select a secretary more like Robert Rubin, Bill Clinton's man at the Treasury.

But White House officials say that is what they got in the form of Stephen Friedman--a former cochairman with Rubin of Goldman Sachs--Lawrence Lindsey's replacement as the White House's national economic adviser. Friedman has been described as "the Republicans' Robert Rubin."

Republican conservatives, who had lobbied for one of their own to get the Treasury job, also gave mixed reviews to the selection of Snow, who served in a variety of posts in the Ford administration, including that of assistant secretary of transportation. He is said to be close to Vice President Dick Cheney.

Corporate America's response has been more favorable. As a former chairman of the influential Business Roundtable, a lobbying group that represents the chief executives of the nation's largest companies, Snow is well-known in America's boardrooms. An economist and a lawyer, he has run the railroad company CSX since 1991. Snow, 63, has been outspoken recently in calling for improved corporate ethics. That apparently was an important factor in President Bush's decision to offer him the position.

The new treasury secretary's first major task will be to navigate through Congress a new economic-stimulus package that didn't find favor with O'Neill, who argued the economy would improve without further government stimulation.

The fact that Bush decided to get rid of both O'Neill and Lindsey suggests that the president and his political advisers are well-aware that a weak economy will damage his re-election chances in 2004.

JAMIE DETTMER IS A SENIOR EDITOR FOR Insight.