McClellan Out as
White House Press Secretary
Karl Rove Gives Up
Policy Oversight to Focus on 2006 Elections
By Fred Barbash and
Jim VandeHei, washingtonpost.com, From the Web, April 19, 2006
White House Press Secretary Scott
McClellan announced his resignation this morning and President's Bush's longtime
adviser Karl Rove is scaling back his responsibilities.
It was the third major change at the White House in the past few weeks and
perhaps the most visible to the public, as McClellan is the most televised face
of the administration through his often-combative daily briefings.
McClellan's resignation was not unexpected.
Rove, who was named a deputy chief of staff for policy after Bush's second
election, will leave that post to spend more time on politics as the mid-term
elections approach. He is expected to be replaced by Joel Kaplan, who now
serves as deputy White House budget director.
Appearing with Bush on the White House South Lawn just before the president left
for a trip to Alabama, McClellan told Bush: "I have given it my all sir
and I have given you my all sir, and I will continue to do so as we transition
to a new press secretary."
Bush thanked McClellan "a job well done."
"I thought he handled his assignment with class, integrity," Bush said.
"It's going to be hard to replace Scott, but nevertheless he made the decision
and I accepted it. One of these days, he and I are going to be rocking in
chairs in Texas and talking about the good old days."
Earlier today, Bush, concerned about a dangerous "vacuum" in Iraq, once again
prodded Iraq's political leadership to put a "government in place" soon.
"We fully recognize that the Iraqis must step up and form a unity government, so
that those who went to the polls to vote recognize that a government will be in
place to respond to their needs. ...
"We also recognize that vacuums in the political process create opportunity for
malfeasance and harm," he said.
Bush commented after meeting with four governors who recently returned from a
trip to Iraq. The governors included Jeb Bush, Republican of Florida and
the president's brother; Tom Vilsack, Democrat of Iowa; Mitch Daniels,
Republican of Indiana and former director of the White House budget office; and
Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia.
Four months of haggling among Iraqi politicians have now passed since the
country went to the polls to choose elected representatives, who were, in turn,
supposed to choose a government.
The 275-member assembly had been scheduled to meet Monday but agreed to a delay
so that Shiites could resolve the continuing dispute over who will be prime
minister.
Staff writer Bill Brubaker contributed to this story.
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