The shakeup at the Bush White House continued today with the announcement of Tony Snow as new press secretary. Ironically, another Snow may be leaving. Rumors continue to swirl that Treasury Secretary John Snow might soon decide to spend more time with the family.

But first, the incoming Snow. The departure of spokesman Scott McClellan was certainly past due. Meeting the White House press corps every day is a thankless job, and it’s frankly amazing he lasted this long. Most two-term presidencies go through four or five in the span of eight years.

Snow was certainly qualified for the job, perhaps overly qualified. He previously worked in the Bush 41 White House and will not be intimidated by the likes of Helen Thomas or David Gregory. But the move will obviously not come without controversy, matter of fact the match has already been lit:

“Tony Snow represents more of the same, not the fresh start the Administration needed,” said Democratic National Committee Communications Director Karen Finney. “This is an interdepartmental move from one part of the conservative infrastructure to another that allows a darling of the right-wing to deliver the same misleading message, cherry-picked information and spin to the American people.”

Ok, it’s not like the DNC was going to praise the move. Surely the democrats would find similar ways to spin had Bush been able to select the Pope as press secretary.

Snow better check his skin depth for thickness now. He might well become the butt of jokes and fodder for late night talk shows, along with Fox News itself. The democrats might even coin ’snow job’ as a jingle or somesuch for their fall election strategy. If so, it’s hard to say whether such a tactic might work, but the reaction today proves that both sides will happily exploit whatever falls into their partisan laps.

As a routine listener of Snow’s radio show I can attest to the fact that he’s a much more broad-minded individual compared to his competitors. While he did occasionally bash republicans, he also wasn’t immune from losing his cool when arguing with lefties. He’ll be dealing with a real snake pit in his new job, so it will be interesting to see whether he can bite his lip. A press secretary simply cannot go off on personal tangents.

Obviously the other factor is his existing relationship with the DC press. Since most in the press corps already considered Fox an arm of the White House before the announcement, this move surely solidifies that notion. Therefore, some mainstreamers might see this as an in-your-face act of war and retaliate accordingly. Bringing down Tony might could become a sport, especially since Snow has been promised a voice inside the White House inner circle.

And what of the other Snow? John has been a rumored short-timer since the Dubai Ports brouhaha and nothing has changed. At the time the criticism was based on his inability to get the message out about the economy–the man simply has ’stodgy CEO’ written all over him. Some in the party were reportedly frustrated that Bush hadn’t benefitted in the polls from the improving economy and that’s certainly still true–the daily message coming from the media continues to be the impending civil war in Iraq and spiralling gas costs.

Not sure a new treasury secretary nor press secretary can change that dynamic, but at this point a change can’t hurt.