James Jones quits as Obama’s national security adviser

In a long-anticipated development, the White House announced today that Gen. James Jones, President Obama's national security adviser, will resign his post. Jones' deputy, Tom Donilon, will replace him.

Jones is the sixth senior Obama adviser to announce his departure from the White House in recent months, though his resignation is no real surprise.

For more than a year -- dating to back to the early months of the Obama administration -- Jones has been rumored to be on his way out of the White House. He had reportedly clashed with other Obama foreign policy advisers, including Denis McDonough and Mark Lippert (who quit the White House last fall), both of whom enjoyed a close relationship with the president dating back to the 2008 campaign. There were also rumors that Jones had been feuding with Vice President Joe Biden's staff and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

The White House strongly denied the stories -- and as rumors of Jones' diminishing clout continued to spread, Obama officials sought to quell them by talking up his clout within the administration.

But Bob Woodward's recently released book, "Obama's Wars," offered evidence of the clash between Jones and Obamaland. According to the book, Jones complained to Obama and then-Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel that Lippert was spreading rumors about him and that his conduct amounted to "insubordination." According to the book, Obama agreed with Jones and fired Lippert — though at the time the White House said Lippert was simply returning to the Navy.

So who is Tom Donilon?

He is a longtime Washington foreign policy hand, beginning with a tour as an aide to Jimmy Carter, moving on to be chief of staff to Bill Clinton's Secretary of State Warren Christopher. Donilon was a foreign policy adviser to Joe Biden during his 2008 presidential run, before joining the Obama campaign, where he helped coach Obama on foreign policy questions ahead of the presidential debates.

He joined the White House as Jones' deputy — but some other staffers viewed him, as one administration official put it, as doing "most of the heavy-lifting" on the national security staff.

Donilon had more recently been viewed among the front-runners to replace Emanuel as chief of staff, though he reportedly indicated to the president that he wasn't interested.

(Photo of Obama and Jones in Turkey: Pete Souza/White House)