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Tony Snow: "Mark McClellan, who is the Administrator for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is announcing his resignation. He'll be missed by the President and the entire administration. He's been talking for some time about wanting to get back with his family -- no, this isn't one of those cheesy excuses; it's the real thing. The President has the highest regard for Mark McClellan and appreciates the work he's done for the administration, first as FDA Commissioner and most recently at CMS. He's led the successful modernization of the Medicare prescription drug benefit and worked to modernize Medicare and Medicaid in ways that will help seniors and other beneficiaries get better health care at a better price."
Scott McClellan's brother: Medicare and Medicaid Chief Mark McClellan listens to President Bush during a discussion about Medicare at Maple Grove Community Center in Maple Grove, Minn., in this June 17, 2005 file photo. Medicare and Medicaid chief Dr. Mark McClellan is resigning, the White House said Tuesday.

From Tony Snow's press gaggle today. Way to go, Tony!

[There] is a letter that was sent to the President by Democratic leaders in the House and Senate, by about 10 of them. In one sense, we welcome the letter because it actually serves as a reiteration and ratification of many of the things the administration is doing. Now, what happened is that the 10 members urged four courses of action for the President. ... .
One, transitioning the U.S. mission in Iraq to counterterrorism training, logistics and force protection. Second, working with Iraqi leaders to disarm the militias and develop a broad based and sustainable political settlement. And, third, convening an international conference and contact group to support a political settlement in Iraq. I've left out some of the verbiage, but you've all seen the letter.
Those are all three things that we've been doing, and I will give you a little bit of chapter and verse in a moment. There is a fourth condition, which was beginning the phased redeployment of U.S. forces from Iraq before the end of this year ...
... a phased redeployment doesn't make sense unless you have a reason for doing so. We want to see the troops come home, but we want to see the troops come home under the proper circumstances, which is successful completion of the task of helping the Iraqi democracy stand up, defend itself and sustain itself.
... one other point, which is, there is a reiteration of a call to replace or have Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld stand down. The President strongly supports the Defense Secretary. It's not going to happen. Creating Don Rumsfeld as a boogeyman may make for good politics, but would make for a lousy strategy at this time. And, furthermore, if you listen to the speech that Secretary Rumsfeld gave last week, it was not only thoughtful, but comprehensive about trying to frame the ongoing war against terror, and also the war going on in Iraq and Afghanistan.
... the President would love to see members of both Houses of Congress returning to that sense of cooperation we had after September 11th, where the real goal was not to try to hand out pink slips at the Pentagon, but instead to win the war on terror in a way that is going to make not only America safer, but also the rest of the world safer so that democracy can take firm root throughout the globe.
Click the link, directly above, for the rest of Tony's remarks.