IMPEACH BUSH

June 1 (Bloomberg) -- White House counselor Dan Bartlett, a long-serving adviser to President George W. Bush, announced his resignation today.

Bartlett, 36, told reporters at the White House he has no immediate plans but would "see what type of opportunities are there for me with, obviously, the experiences I've had working at the highest levels of government."

Bartlett joins several top Bush administration officials, including Sara Taylor, the White House political director, and deputy national security advisers J.D. Crouch and Meghan O'Sullivan, all of whom departed last month.

"Does it hurt the administration? Yes, sure it does," said Stephen Hess, a presidential scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "They know the history of everything, and at this point it's too late to explain it to newcomers."

"There are few people where a president feels a loss, a personal loss," Hess said. Bartlett "is one of them."

Deputy White House press secretary Dana Perino said a successor to Bartlett will be in place before his departure date, July 4.

Bartlett, a native Texan, worked in Bush's first gubernatorial campaign and has been at Bush's side since, moving quickly up the ladder. Most recently, he held the title of counselor to the president, with a portfolio that included strategic communications and political damage control.

Managing the Image

In that role, Bartlett has been at the center of managing the public image of White House decision-making, including the president's displeasure at being blindsided by the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and the administration's defense of its slow response to Hurricane Katrina.

In 1994, Bartlett helped organize a hunting trip during which Bush accidentally killed a protected bird. As Bush recalled in his autobiography, "A Charge to Keep," he quickly sent Bartlett to pay a fine at the local justice of the peace.

Bartlett will "be greatly missed but nobody's indispensable," said Charlie Black, a longtime consultant to Republicans. "Since Tony Snow's arrived, the communications expertise has been upgraded."

Charlie Cook, an independent political analyst, said Bartlett and others now leaving the administration are "getting a head start on the rest of their lives.

"With President Bush in the final stages of lame duck president status, his need for some of these folks is less too," said Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report, a non-partisan newsletter in Washington. "The president gets a little less relevant."

`Competing Families'

Bartlett said today that he informed Bush a couple of weeks ago of his desire to leave. "He was disappointed, obviously," but didn't try to talk him out of it, Bartlett said.

"Today's obviously a very emotional, difficult day," Bartlett said. "I've had competing families and, unfortunately, the Bush family has prevailed too many times and it's time for the Bartlett family to finally prevail."

Bartlett said he normally arrived at the White House around 6 a.m. and went home about 8 p.m. and was on call every weekend, including vacations. "You bring your work in tow," he said.

Asked if burnout was a factor after six and one-half years at the White House, he replied, "You know, people say you don't really know how tired you are until after you leave. That'll probably be the case. I'm so used to it now, I don't even know what burnout means."

Bartlett had a hand in key decisions of the Bush presidency, including tax cuts, the overhaul of public schools through No Child Left Behind, energy security, the war in Iraq and the current immigration legislation.

"I'm proud of the accomplishments and the small role that I played," he said. He said he doesn't plan to write a book about his days in the White House.

"I value his judgment and I treasure his friendship," Bush said in a statement released by the White House. "Since coming to work for me fourteen years ago as I prepared to run for governor, Dan has become a husband and a father. I understand his decision to make his young family his first priority."

To contact the reporter on this story: Edwin Chen in Washington at echen32@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: June 1, 2007 12:41 EDT