"Oh, the President is who was elected to run the country. I am a part of, or was a part of his administration. So the President sets overall environmental policy."

"I cannot face the prospect of looking my children in the eye..."

Christine Todd Whitman, chief administrator at the EPA for two and a half years, Former New Jersey governor, resigned on May 20, 2003.

What she wrote in her resignation letter: "As rewarding as the past two and half years have been for me professionally, it's time for me to return to my home and husband in New Jersey ... I leave knowing that we have made a positive difference and that we have set the Agency on a course that will result in continued environmental improvement."

What Christy Whitman wrote in the first draft of her resignation letter: "When you honored me by asking me to join your Cabinet as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, I didn't know the title would be ironic. I naively assumed the post would have something to do with protecting the environment, as opposed to protecting the bottom line of your campaign contributors. I thought that was Don Evans' job over at Commerce. If I am ever to sleep at night again, I have no choice other than to send you this letter. I remember the lump I felt in my throat back in 1973 when Elliot Richardson resigned his Cabinet post rather than acquiesce to Richard Nixon's demand that he fire Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox. I had the same reaction seven years later when Cyrus Vance also took a principled stand and resigned as secretary of state in protest over President Carter's military action in Iran.

"'You would not be well served in the coming weeks and months,' he wrote to Carter, 'by a secretary of state who could not offer you the public backing you need on an issue and decision of such extraordinary importance.' My feelings exactly. As Richardson told Nixon: 'Mr. President, it would appear that we have a different perception of the public interest.'

"And since I cannot face the prospect of looking my children in the eye and explaining why I stood by while the president I served was selling out their health, the health of their children and the health of our planet, I respectfully submit my resignation – and bid you goodbye."

Arianna Huffington is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of nine books. Her most recent book is "Pigs at the Trough: How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption are Undermining America" (Crown). Her weekly column returns on Jan. 7.