URL http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9506E7DA1430F936A35752C0A9619C8B63

DATE/ AUTHOR None	AUTHORS: Jim Rutenberg

H Miers Steps Down as White House Counsel

S1 Harriet E. Miers, President Bush's longtime confidante and onetime Supreme Court nominee, has resigned as White House counsel, officials said Thursday.

S2 Tony Snow, the White House spokesman, said that Mr. Bush had accepted Ms. Miers's resignation ''reluctantly'' and that she had tendered it after deciding she was ready for a change after six years in the job.
S3 The White House said that a search for a successor was under way and that Ms. Miers would remain at her post through this month.

S4 Ms. Miers's departure comes as the White House girds for possible confrontations with Congressional Democrats, who have promised oversight investigations into White House policies, including energy, the war in Iraq and national security.

S5 The White House counsel's office would be central in attempts to stave off subpoenas and requests for sensitive information.

S6 Even before the Democratic victories in November, Republicans close to the White House speculated that it would seek to beef up the counsel's office.

S7 Mr.
S8 Snow said Ms. Miers's departure was not the beginning of another round of changes in the West Wing.

S9 ''For those who are speculating about any others within the White House proper, I am aware of none and expect none,'' Mr.
S10 Snow said.

S11 Still, her announced resignation came with Mr. Bush poised to name a new director of national intelligence, J. Michael McConnell, a retired Navy vice admiral and director of the National Security Agency from 1992 to 1996, and move his current director, John D. Negroponte, to the State Department as its second in command.

S12 Rumors of Ms. Miers's departure date back to the White House shake-up last spring, when Joshua B. Bolten became Mr. Bush's chief of staff and undertook a review of all personnel.
S13 Mr. Bolten was said at the time to have raised the possibility of moving Ms. Miers out of the counsel's office, though White House officials denied it.

S14 Mr.
S15 Snow said her decision to resign did come after a series of meetings with Mr. Bolten.

S16 ''She's been here for six years,'' Mr.
S17 Snow said.
S18 ''It's hard duty.''

S19 Ms. Miers has worked with Mr. Bush since his days as Texas governor and has grown close to him and the first lady, Laura Bush.

S20 Ms. Miers started at the White House as staff secretary after the 2000 campaign and became a deputy chief of staff before moving to the White House counsel's office.

S21 Mr. Bush's decision to nominate her to the Supreme Court in 2005 provoked the ire of liberals and conservatives, who criticized her as a Bush crony who did not have the legal intellectual credentials or résumé the job required.
S22 She withdrew her name from consideration but returned to Mr. Bush's inner circle and remained one of his closest advisers.

S23 In her resignation letter, Ms. Miers said her own role in helping Mr. Bush choose nominees for the federal bench was ''among the most rewarding of my experiences.''

