McClellan and Rove Announcements

First, the news. Scott McClellan has resigned as White House Press Secretary, and I for one am grateful. It was hard to watch him the last two years after the fine performance of Ari Fleischer. Plus, you don't want your press secretary to be the story, as Scott too often was.

Also, Carl Rove is giving up his Deputy policy advisor position, to focus on his tasks on the political side. I didn't think making him a policy advisor was ever a good idea -- I like to see the political side kept seperate, and while I think Rove could be a good policy person, I don't think he's done a good job on that front.

So I'm happy enough with these announcements that I'm willing to give you a glimpse into what the events as reported by the European site ITV, errors and all.

So I bring you, from ITV, "Bush rocked by resignations":

White House press secretary Scott McClellan and senior advisor Karl Rove have announced their resignation from the Bush administration.

Oops. Well, one out of two isn't bad -- as I said Rove isn't resigning, he's just going back to politics for the 2006 election. And the headline is probably wrong, rumor is that Bush forced McClellan to resign (in any case Scott's going back to help his mother run as in independent for Texas Governor).

"I don't know whether or not the press corps realises it, but his is a challenging assignment dealing with you all on a regular basis. And I thought he handled his assignment with class and integrity," Mr Bush said.

To contrast, here's a report from Marketwatch, White House aide Rove to give up policy role: reports

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Top White House adviser Karl Rove will be giving up his policymaking role to focus on political strategy ahead of this fall's mid-term elections, news reports said Wednesday. The move comes as President Bush's new chief of staff, Joshua Bolten, moves to shake up the White House staff. In a widely expected move, White House press secretary Scott McClellan announced his resignation Wednesday morning. Bush on Tuesday announced that he would nominate U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman to replace Bolten as head the White House's Office of Management and Budget

Hard to see how a "widely expected move" would have "rocked" the administration. But that's the entertainment value of the web.