NICE TRY

Wait, what's this? More controversy at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights? Apparently you-know-who doesn't plan to go quietly just yet:

Mary Frances Berry, blunt-spoken chairwoman of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, resigned Tuesday after more than two decades of criticizing the governments, both Democratic and Republican, that she served.

Berry, an independent, and Democratic Vice Chairman Cruz Reynoso sent resignation letters to President Bush a day after the White House moved to replace the two. Both had resisted leaving Monday, arguing their terms wouldn't expire until midnight Jan. 21, 2005.

The White House maintained that their six-year terms expired Sunday, and Berry and Reynoso had been replaced.

In brief letters to Bush, Berry and Reynoso said they believed they still had more time to serve but it wasn't worth the fight.

"Given that the conclusion of my tenure is only a few weeks away, a legal challenge [Note: Remember, that's how she got her job back when Reagan tried to dump her.] would be an unwise expenditure of resources," wrote Berry, a civil rights history professor at the University of Pennsylvania. "Therefore, I am resigning my position as commissioner on the United States Commission on Civil Rights effective immediately."

Okay, now she's gone. I think.