'Confidante' Miers steps down as White House counsel

WASHINGTON — Harriet E. Miers, President Bush's longtime confidante and one-time Supreme Court nominee, has resigned as White House counsel, officials said Thursday.

Tony Snow, the White House spokesman, said that Bush had accepted Miers' resignation "reluctantly" and that she had tendered it after deciding she was ready for a change after six years in the job. The White House said that a search for a successor was under way and that Miers would remain at her post through this month.

Snow said her departure was not the beginning of another round of changes in the West Wing.

"For those who are speculating about any others within the White House proper, I am aware of none and expect none," Snow said.

Still, her announced resignation came with Bush poised to name a new director of national intelligence — J. Michael McConnell, a retired Navy vice admiral and director of the National Security Agency from 1992 to 1996 — and move his current director, John D. Negroponte, to the State Department as its second in command.

Rumors of Miers' departure date back to the White House shake-up last spring, when Joshua B. Bolten became Bush's chief of staff and undertook a review of all personnel. Bolten was said at the time to have raised the possibility of moving Miers out of the counsel's office, though White House officials denied it.

Snow said that her decision to resign did come after a series of meetings with Bolten.

"She's been here for six years," Snow said. "It's hard duty."

Miers has worked with Bush since his days as Texas governor and has grown close to him and the first lady, Laura Bush.

Miers started at the White House as staff secretary after the 2000 campaign and became a deputy chief of staff before moving to the White House counsel's office.

Bush's decision to nominate her to the Supreme Court in 2005 provoked the ire of liberals and conservatives, who criticized her as a Bush crony who did not have the legal intellectual credentials or resume that the job required. She withdrew her name from consideration but returned to Bush's inner circle and remained one of his closest advisers.

In her resignation letter, Miers said her own role in helping Bush choose nominees for the federal bench was "among the most rewarding of my experiences."

Hers is the latest in a series of departures from the White House by longtime advisers to Bush. It came just weeks after the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

Also last year, the former White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, and Bush's first chief of staff, Andrew H. Card Jr., both stepped down.

In an interview on Thursday, Card said Miers had held three of the most demanding jobs at the White House. "She was in tremendously grueling roles," he said. "None of those responsibilities are 8 to 6, they're 5 to 11, all night long."

---

Contributing: Sheryl Gay Stolberg