WASHINGTON, April 23 (UPI) -- Karen Hughes, one of President George W. Bush's key aides, who was credited with helping craft some of his most eloquent speeches, abruptly resigned Tuesday, saying she and her family wanted to return to Texas.
The move caught many Bush administration insiders by surprise and raised political eyebrows across Washington.
But Joe Allbaugh, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said her decision did not come as a surprise to many of the president's key aides from Texas.
"We all want to go home at some point," he said.
Allbaugh said, however, Hughes would continue to serve the president from Texas and that the time was right for Hughes, her 15-year-old son, Robert, and her husband, Jerry.
"She's still a player with the president of the United States," Allbaugh said, "and he'll continue to call upon her."
Another key Republican insider, who asked not to be quoted by name, said that in addition to Hughes's son, Robert, having had difficulty finding friends at Washington's exclusive St. Albans School, her husband, Jerry, a lawyer who specializes in trusts and estate work, cannot operate his practice from Washington.
"It's simply too state specific a law practice," he said, and Jerry longed to get back to his Texas practice.
Hughes, so often photographed at the president's side, announced her resignation Tuesday morning.
"My husband and I have made a difficult, but we think, right decision to move our family home to Texas," she said.
In an interview on CNN, Hughes said her decision demonstrated the family-friendly atmosphere that is cultivated with the West Wing.
"I hope that what I have demonstrated over the last year-and-a-half and now with this decision is yes, you can do what's right for your family, that you can work at the White House as I did and still be involved with your family," Hughes said.
She dismissed speculation that if she had not been a woman, she would not have had to choose between her family and her job.
"That's like saying if you're eyes are blue, you see the world differently," she said.
Hughes said Dan Bartlett, who was recently promoted to Communications Director of the White House, was likely to continue in that role, which would make Bartlett the chief of the president's public-relations apparatus. Ari Fleischer, Bush's press secretary, reports to Bartlett.
Hughes was part of what was called the "Iron Triangle" in Texas, three aides -- Hughes; Allbaugh and Karl Rove, a senior White House counselor -- who directed the president's victorious political campaign and guided the first year of his administration.
Hughes was known to reporters as firm and plainspoken and to the White House staff as demanding and always protective of the president. She was the architect of a White House public-relations operation that had few leaks and little of the confusion of statements that have marked other administrations. Hughes also was instrumental in choosing other key administration media representatives, including Victoria Clark at the Defense Department.
Hughes said she plans to continue as an adviser to the president from Texas.
"The president has asked me and I have agreed to continue to be involved, to continue to serve as a key adviser to him, and to help develop his message, to give him advice on strategic communications, and to continue to work on major speeches," Hughes said.
She said the details had not been worked out, but she will not continue to be a full-time employee of the White House.
Hughes' sudden resignation came as a surprise to Republican strategists, even those with close ties to the Bush White House.
One administration source says the decision was motivated by family concerns.
"Her husband and family come first," the source said.
Many accepted Hughes explanation for her resignation. She is known to dote on her son and during the president's campaign took him out of school and tutored him so as to keep him at her side.
(UPI reporters Kathy Gambrell and Peter Roff contributed to this report.)
