WASHINGTON — The top aide to White House strategist Karl Rove quit Friday, a week after congressional investigators portrayed her as a key link between senior officials and the now-disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff -- brokering deals for his clients as she accepted premium tickets to sporting events and concerts.
Susan Ralston had worked as Rove's executive assistant, functioning as a gatekeeper of sorts for President Bush's most trusted political advisor. She was an aide to Abramoff before she joined the White House and became what the lobbyist called his "implant" there.
As Rove's top staffer and a special assistant to the president, Ralston becomes the closest aide to Bush to leave in a scandal that has so far enveloped lobbyists, lawmakers, Capitol Hill aides and an administration procurement official while, until now, sparing the inner sanctum of the White House.
Her departure comes as Republican leaders on Capitol Hill combat allegations that they did not adequately respond to inappropriate behavior toward House pages by Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.). It is the latest GOP setback in a midterm election year increasingly defined by scandal. Republicans are hoping to retain majorities in the House and Senate for the final two years of Bush's presidency.
Ralston "did not want to be a distraction to the White House at this important time," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, adding that Ralston "played a very valuable role in advancing the president's agenda." Perino said Ralston would leave within the next couple of weeks.
The report issued last week by the House Governmental Reform Committee quoted e-mails from Ralston in which, among other things, she helped lobby Rove about political endorsements in tiny U.S. protectorates represented by Abramoff and arranged for Rove to sit as Abramoff's guest in a private box for first-round games in the NCAA basketball tournament.
The bipartisan investigation documented more than 400 lobbying contacts between Abramoff's team and the White House between January 2001 and March 2004, including dozens with Rove's office and nine with the top strategist himself. The report was based on thousands of pages of billing records and e-mails obtained from Abramoff's firm.
The committee did not subpoena information from the White House, making it difficult to conclude in many cases whether Abramoff's requests were granted and whether the lobbyist, as White House officials have argued, was exaggerating his influence.
