SOLOMON GRUNDY

Bush's Spokesman, Ari Fleischer, Leaving White House (DAVID STOUT with TERENCE NEILAN, May 19, 2003, NY Times)

Ari Fleischer, the public and generally good-natured face of the Bush administration, will resign in July to enter private business.

"I've decided my time has come to leave the White House," Mr. Fleischer said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

Mr. Fleischer, who is 42 and was married six months ago, said he had decided that this was the time to step down as the chief White House spokesman, unless he were willing to commit himself for another four years.

"I've just been thinking about what I want to do, when I want to do it," he told The A.P. "I believe deeply in this president, his policies and the man. But there comes a time in public service when you have to decide when it's time to go."

Mr. Fleischer's announcement comes slightly more a year after Mr. Bush's chief media adviser during the 2000 campaign, Karen P. Hughes, left her White House post of counselor to the president to spend more time with her family, though she continues to advise the president.

Heard some sillytalk this morning that he was being forced out. Here's an easy way to determine such things. If the announcement is on a Friday, it's a firing; on Monday a resignation. Posted by Orrin Judd at May 19, 2003 2:26 PM