Another key aide to Bush is bailing. White House counselor Dan Bartlett, one of Bush’s “closest and most trusted aides,” announced on Friday that he will resign in July. Barlett’s departure will leave “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.

Bartlett has spent “virtually his entire career working for Bush, starting in 1993, as Bush prepared for his first gubernatorial campaign in Texas.”

Get this guy some therapy… he’ll need it. Fourteen years with the “Decider/Commander Guy” would be enough to drive anyone with any sense to jump ship.

Bartlett is set to become the latest in a string of top Bush administration officials to leave the White House, including deputy national security adviser J.D. Crouch II, who helped lead the policy review that led Bush to send more U.S. troops to Iraq, and Sara Taylor, the White House political director.

More than a year ago, Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. left the administration, allowing Bolten, then the budget director, to take over.

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