text: Clinton adviser Morris announces resignation . CHICAGO 1996-08-29 President Bill Clinton 's top political strategist Dick Morris resigned on Thursday , saying he did not want to become an issue in Clinton 's re-election campaign . In a written statement , distributed by the Clinton campaign , Morris avoided comment on published allegations that he had engaged in a year-long affair with a $ 200-an-hour prostitute . The statement from Morris said that he had submitted his resignation on Wednesday night . " While I served I sought to avoid the limelight because I did not want to become the message . Now , I resign so I will not become the issue , " he said . The announcement followed a report in the weekly supermarket tabloid Star magazine , reprinted in Thursday 's editions of the New York Post , that the married adviser had hired a 37-year-old prostitute on a weekly basis while visiting Washington to advise Clinton on his re-election campaign . " I will not subject my wife , family or friends to the sadistic , vitriol of yellow journalism . I will not dignify such journalism with a reply or an answer . I never will , " his statement said . It was distributed to reporters at the press centre of Clinton 's Democratic convention headquarters just hours before the president was to address the delegates accepting the party 's nomination for a second four-year term in the White House .