Former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell is resigning as the Obama administration's Mideast envoy, a senior U.S. official told CNN Friday.
Mitchell, a former U.S. senator from Maine and prominent American diplomat, has served as President Barack Obama's point man in the region as the administration has tried to keep Arab-Israeli peace talks on track.
His resignation comes at a pivotal moment in the Arab world. Obama is scheduled to deliver an address next week on the "Arab Spring" - the uprisings that have shaken long-standing autocratic regimes across North Africa and the broader Middle East.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to visit Obama and deliver an address to Congress next week.
Mitchell was among the president's first appointments. He was named Mideast envoy on January 22, 2009, two days after Obama took office.
Among other things, Mitchell also played a key role in Clinton-era negotiations regarding the status of Northern Ireland that resulted in the Good Friday Peace Agreement.
Mitchell has repeatedly reaffirmed the importance of comprehensive peace in the Middle East, including Israeli-Palestinian agreement on a two-state solution and normalization of relations between Israel and both Syria and Lebanon.
Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole is back on the mend after three stays in various hospitals for an infection that led to a fever.
"I want my friends to know I've left Walter Reed Army Medical Center," Dole said in a prepared statement on Thursday. "I appreciate the great care I've received from the outstanding men and women at Walter Reed. I feel a whole lot better after being treated for a minor infection."
Dole, who was the GOP nominee for president in 1996 and served 27 years
as a senator from Kansas, was admitted to Walter Reed for an elevated
temperature last week. He was released later in the week only to head back to George Washington University hospital for a check-up on Friday, and then was admitted to Walter Reed later that night.
The 87-year-old Dole vows to get back to work at Alston & Bird, an Atlanta-based law firm that has a large lobbying office in Washington.
"I'm excited to get back to work tomorrow and to be joining my new colleague at Alston & Bird, Earl Pomeroy, he said. "It's going to be a different Congress and different players on each side of the aisle."
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel will step down Friday to run for mayor of Chicago, two sources told CNN Thursday.
The move was expected, after Chicago Mayor Richard Daley recently decided not to run for re-election.
Candidates for the Chicago mayoral race must gather 12,500 signatures by November 22.
President Obama is considering a visit to the oil spill area near the coast of Louisiana as early as Sunday, according to two senior administration officials.
White House aide Kal Penn, the once and future actor, was robbed at gunpoint in Washington early Tuesday morning, according to two officials familiar with the matter.
Penn had his wallet and cell phone stolen, but officials stressed that he was not seriously injured in the incident that was initially reported by TMZ.com.
"He's fine," said one of the officials, who added that Penn reported for work at the White House. He works in the Office of Public Liaison and focuses on President Obama's outreach to the Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities.
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