Matalin to leave post as Bush adviser
From John King
CNN Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON (CNN) - The White House announced Friday that Mary Matalin will leave her position as a top adviser to President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney and return to the private sector effective December 31.
A top Republican operative in the first Bush administration, Matalin joined the senior White House staff with the younger Bush's administration in January 2001.
Matalin met with Bush earlier this week, and he said he wished her well, a White House official said. He also wanted to make sure she would be available to play a prominent role in any 2004 Bush re-election campaign, and Matalin assured him she would. She will serve as an informal outside adviser to Bush and Cheney.
Matalin serves as counselor to the vice president and assistant to the president, and is among a handful of leading administration voices on political and communications strategy. She is the second high-profile female to leave the administration. Bush senior adviser Karen Hughes left in the summer to move back to Texas with her family.
Matalin had said from the beginning she planned to stay only a year or so and agreed to stay longer because of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Since late summer, she has been telling colleagues and friends she would leave soon after the midterm elections to spend more time with her children.
CNN reported in November she was planning to leave sometime after the midterm elections.
Matalin is married to James Carville, her political opposite. A Democratic consultant, Carville advised the Clinton administration and has been a critic of the Bush White House. The couple has two young daughters.
Matalin's deputy, Cathy Martin, will be promoted to assistant to the vice president and assume many of Matalin's responsibilities. Martin is an attorney and former deputy chief of staff to Commerce Secretary Donald Evans.
