Brett McGurk Withdraws Bid to Be Iraq Envoy WASHINGTON - President Obama's nominee for ambassador to Iraq withdrew from consideration on Monday after a series of racy e-mails fueled Republican opposition and eroded Democratic support for his confirmation in the Senate. Brett H. McGurk, Mr. Obama's choice for envoy to Iraq, said he was stepping aside because it was important for the United States Embassy in Baghdad to have a permanent new leader soon. "Iraq urgently needs an ambassador," Mr. McGurk wrote in a letter to Mr. Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. The country is in the midst of a political crisis and our mission is undergoing rapid transformation. In a separate e-mail to friends, he wrote that pulling out was "one of the most difficult decisions I have ever made," but he vowed to stay involved. Mr. McGurk's withdrawal was a blow to the White House as it sought to manage the next phase in Iraq's postwar development. Since pulling out American troops in December after nearly eight years of combat, Mr. Obama has been trying to preserve a fragile stability in Iraq amid sporadic violence and concerns about Iranian influence. The White House has been worried that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki might develop into another strongman. What tripped up Mr. McGurk, however, was an affair with a reporter covering the American venture. E-mails posted on a Web site early this month after his nomination made clear that while working for President George W. Bush in Baghdad in 2008, Mr. McGurk engaged in a romantic relationship with Gina Chon of The Wall Street Journal. The two married this spring, but Ms. Chon resigned last week from The Journal, which said she had inappropriately shown unpublished articles to Mr. McGurk. Six of the nine Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee wrote Mr. Obama last week that Mr. McGurk "lacks the leadership and management experience" to run the largest American embassy in the world and suggested that the e-mails documented "unprofessional conduct" and "poor judgment" that would tarnish his credibility. The public opposition by Republicans led to private defections among Democrats, including Senator Barbara Boxer of California, according to Democrats. The White House insisted that it would fight for Mr. McGurk, whose nomination was up for a committee vote on Tuesday. Asked on CNN over the weekend if the White House would withdraw the nomination, David Plouffe, the president's senior adviser, said: "No. We've made this nomination, and we think he will ably serve as ambassador. But Mr. McGurk foresaw a bruising, protracted floor fight and pulled his candidacy. The White House released a statement on Monday thanking him for his "tireless and effective leadership in Iraq from the height of the war to the moment our last troops left Iraq" and beyond. "While we regret to see Brett withdraw his candidacy," Tommy Vietor, a White House spokesman, said in the statement, "there is no doubt that he will be called on again to serve the country." In nominating Mr. McGurk, Mr. Obama turned to one of the most prominent veterans of the Iraq operation. Mr. McGurk served in the Coalition Provisional Authority installed after the 2003 invasion and later worked for Mr. Bush on Iraq issues at the White House. He was one of the architects of the 2007 troop surge credited with helping turn the war around, and he negotiated the agreement Mr. Bush signed in 2008 committing to withdrawing troops by the end of 2011. Mr. Obama, who fulfilled that agreement, tapped Mr. McGurk over the last three years to help manage issues in Baghdad, including as his own negotiator seeking an agreement to leave a small residual American force after 2011. The failure of those talks left some Republicans, including Senator John McCain of Arizona, skeptical of Mr. McGurk's nomination even before the e-mails with Ms. Chon were posted. Mr. McGurk's defenders said that while the e-mails may have been unseemly, they did not detract from his ability to represent the country in Iraq. But the same bipartisan experience that had been Mr. McGurk's strength proved a weakness. While Republicans were disinclined toward anyone nominated by Mr. Obama, Democrats were not eager to rally to defend someone who worked for Mr. Bush. In his letter to Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton, Mr. McGurk wrote that he decided to withdraw while visiting graves of soldiers killed in Iraq at Arlington National Cemetery. He also cited the pain of seeing his new wife drawn into the political battles of Washington.