Top Bush Aide to Step Down

Another Bush administration official is stepping down, and this time the resignation shrinks the president's inner circle: Top aide Dan Bartlett will leave on July 4 after 14 years working for Bush. The defection is the latest in a trickle that's rapidly becoming a flood. Bartlett, 36, will seek a private-sector job and, yes, spend more time with his family.

Bartlett joked that his wife helped push the decision by suggesting they name their 4-month-old son "Exit Strategy." At least two deputy national security advisers and a top NSA analyst have resigned recently, but Bartlett is the highest-ranking official to depart since Donald Rumsfeld. His last day falls less than a week after Paul Wolfowitz leaves the World Bank. (More Dan Bartlett stories.)