Just 24 hours after last Thursday night's announcement that an anti-John G. Roberts ad was being pulled from the airwaves, David E. Seldin, NARAL's communications director, sent an e-mail to friends saying that he was leaving his job, according to a report in the Washington Post.
The NARAL Pro-Choice America's ad outraged conservatives, who claimed it was false and misleading.
But Seldin defended the ad's linking of Roberts to violent abortion opponents as "100 percent accurate." He had also pushed for a more aggressive approach to heating up the Roberts debate than others favored at NARAL.
Seldin wrote in the e-mail, "I've been thinking for a while that I would most likely leave after the Supreme Court nomination fight was over, and by leaving now I can spend the next two weeks in Cape Cod with my family relaxing, instead of trying to find a place with good cell phone reception."
Seldin's e-mail reportedly included ways to contact him, ending, "You'll no doubt be hearing from me when I get back to town at the end of the month and start thinking about what I do next."
The 37-year-old worked in the White House press office under President Bill Clinton and was communications director for Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.
