Treasury Secretary Is Likely to Leave Soon (Phil Gramm on short list) [View All]

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON, Dec. 5 - President Bush has decided to replace John W. Snow as treasury secretary and has been looking closely at a number of possible replacements, including the White House chief of staff, Andrew H. Card Jr., Republicans with ties to the White House say.
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Treasury secretary is a high-profile job, and one likely to be especially prominent in the next few years if Mr. Bush makes good on his pledge to press for big changes to Social Security and a rethinking of the tax code.

The White House has announced plans for an economic forum on Dec. 15 and 16 in Washington to focus attention on the president's second-term agenda, and administration officials have made no secret of their belief that they need a reconstituted economic team to sell Mr. Bush's plan on Capitol Hill and to voters.

Conservative interest groups and some other Republicans in Washington have been pressing the White House to consider Phil Gramm, the former Republican senator from Texas who was an economics professor before getting into politics.

The adviser to the White House said Mr. Gramm was under consideration, but that the prospects of him getting the job were unclear. Mr. Gramm is currently an executive with UBS, a securities firm.

http://nytimes.com/2004/12/06/politics/06cabinet.html