Prometheus 6   

Whitman, E.P.A. Administrator, Resigns
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ASHINGTON -- Christie Whitman, often at odds with the Bush White House over environmental issues and a lightning rod for the administration's critics, resigned Wednesday as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Whitman said in a letter to President Bush that she was leaving to spend time with family. [p6: you know what THAT means…]

"As rewarding as the past two-and-a-half years have been for me professionally, it is time to return to my home and husband in New Jersey, which I love just as you do your home state of Texas," she wrote Bush.

… With Bush's re-election campaign gearing up, the White House has told senior staff and Cabinet members that if they are thinking of leaving the administration, this is the time to resign; otherwise, they will be expected to remain aboard until after the 2004 election if Bush wins a second term. White House press secretary Ari Fleischer announced Monday that he will resign in July.

… "Christie Whitman must feel like her own long national nightmare is over," said Philip Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust, an advocacy group. "No EPA administrator has ever been so consistently and publicly humiliated by the White House."