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Fleischer Leaving White House to Seek Quieter Pursuits

Monday, May 19, 2003
(11:15 AM)
By Steve Holland
Reuters Writer

"This is a wonderful job. I love this job, I love President Bush, I believe deeply in President Bush, policies and the man. But there comes a time in public service when you have to know when it is time to go to pursue other endeavors."

White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, 42, was married 6 months ago.
Image Credit: Ron Edmonds -- AP

WASHINGTON -- Reuters
President Bush's spokesman Ari Fleischer on Monday announced that he is resigning this summer to pursue more relaxing endeavors "after 21 years of doing nothing but government and politics."

"My heart tells me it's time to go," he told reporters.

Fleischer, 42, a New Yorker who got married six months ago, said he would spend the next 18 months trying to help Bush get re-elected then would move home to Westchester, New York.

"I informed President Bush last week that after 21 years of doing nothing but government and politics ... that I have decided that my time has come to leave the White House. And I will leave later this summer, most likely in July," Fleischer said.

A deputy press secretary, Scott McClellan, was seen as a likely replacement.

Fleischer said he was basically exhausted after working through the Sept. 11 crisis, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the anthrax attacks, and other issues. "They just take their toll on your ability to serve," he said.

He said if he did not leave now he would need to stay on through Bush's re-election campaign, which was announced last Friday. "There's kind of an off-ramp. You either take it at this time or you're in for four," he said, meaning all four years of Bush's term.

* TYPICAL TENURE
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2003 © Reuters, Ltd.

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