Bye, Bye Dan Bartlett

Reuters reporting that one of President Bush’s top aides, Dan Bartlett, has resigned.

The resignation will be effective July 4. Gee, now what else is supposed to happen around July 4? Let me think ... hmmm ... Oh yeah, Fred Thompson is supposed to formally announce. I wonder if there’s any connection between the two news stories?

Of course, there may be another hot news story connected to this timely resignation. Bartlett was subpoenaed in the Valerie Plame case, since he, along with Ari Fleischer, were among the first of Bush’s inner circle who possibly saw a secret memo identifying Joe Wilson’s wife as a CIA operative. Plame was outed by Robert Novak one week later.

ThinkProgress did an excellent timeline outlining Bartlett’s role in the Plame leak case which is worth a look now.

Bartlett is a young man, just 36 years old. He’s worked for Bush since 1993; in fact, it’s been his entire career. We’ve heard similar stories about other close Bush allies--Alberto Gonzalez comes to mind. I have to say, this is one of the creepiest things about the Bush cult to me, the way they groom these folks and press them into family service.

Anyway, I’m sure this isn’t the last we’ve heard of Dan Bartlett.