Speechwriter Turned Advisor to Leave Bush

The man who has been putting words in President Bush’s mouth for the last seven years said Wednesday that he is leaving the White House.

Michael Gerson, who went from chief speechwriter in the first term to senior advisor in the second, wants to pursue other writing and policy work, said Bush spokesman Ken Lisaius.

Gerson’s departure follows those of other longtime aides, including Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card and Press Secretary Scott McClellan.

Card and McClellan left as part of a shake-up designed to improve Bush’s standing amid low poll numbers and policy setbacks, but White House officials said Gerson was not part of that.

Gerson told the Washington Post that he had been talking with Bush for months about leaving but waited until the White House situation had stabilized.

Gerson started working for Bush in 1999 in the early days of his presidential campaign, and he became one of Bush’s most trusted aides. He had a West Wing office, unusual for speechwriters in recent history.

Some of Bush’s most-repeated signature phrases, such as “the soft bigotry of low expectations” or “the armies of compassion,” were the work of Gerson, an evangelical Christian and former theology student.