Ed Gillespie, we hardly knew ye. Six-and-a-half months after the GOP politico became new chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia, he announced today that he is resigning from the statewide party. In a letter posted on the party website, Gillespie announced that he will succeed longtime George W. Bush aide Dan Bartlett as the new Counselor to the President.

“Obviously,” Gillespie writes, “if seven months ago I had any idea that I would be asked to serve our President and our country in this new capacity less than a year after being elected to lead the RPV, I would never have sought the chairmanship.”

It may not be the last the Old Dominion sees of the new-old GOP chief. As UVA politics professor and pundit Larry Sabato said in the Hook’s March feature on Gillespie, “It’s been speculated that Ed has some political ambitions of his own, and so perhaps he sees this as a way into a GOP nomination for office in Virginia.” That speculation has been echoed today by the Associated Press in their report on Gillespie’s new position.

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