My question is why this should come as any great surprise. After all, we are six-and-a-half years into an administration that has had relatively few major personnel changes over its lifetime.

White House counselor Dan Bartlett, one of President Bush's closest and most trusted aides, said yesterday that he will resign his post in July, leaving a void in an administration that has seen a string of departures as it struggles with sagging public approval ratings.

Bartlett, the father of three young children, said he will seek work in the private sector so he can spend more time with his family. The announcement came on his 36th birthday. "I've had competing families. And, unfortunately, the Bush family has prevailed too many times, and it's high time for the Bartlett family to prevail," he told reporters.

With twin three-year-olds and a six-month-old, it is not unreasonable for a guy who has worked for Bush since he was a 22-year-old fresh out of college to decide that the time had come to move on so that he doesn't lose any more time with his family. Besides, this is a time period when many two-term administrations have seen folks move on in a different direction -- why should this administration be any different?