John Bryson resigned late Wednesday as commerce secretary, less than two weeks after suffering a seizure and hitting two cars in an incident still shrouded in some mystery, The Washington Post reported yesterday. Bryson, who spent only eight months in his Cabinet post, said in a letter to President Obama that new leadership was needed since the seizure he suffered “could be a distraction” during a crucial time for the U.S. economy. A former energy executive from California and co-founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council, Bryson was recruited last year to Commerce in part so he could serve as an administration liaison to the business community, but those plans failed to pan out. Bryson rarely appeared at high-profile business events or as a prominent spokesman in the news media. Administration officials admitted that he wasn’t as effective an advocate as they had initially hoped. Deputy Secretary Rebecca M. Blank has been running the department on an interim basis since last week.
