"Earlier, he informed his Cabinet that he was stepping down.

"Channel 10 TV broadcast a government picture of Mr Olmert reading his letter of resignation to Peres this evening.

"Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is already meeting with party leaders to set up a new coalition government.

"Mr Peres is meeting with party leaders to decide on Mr Olmert's successor, but Ms Livni is the obvious choice.

"She supports Mr Olmert's efforts toward a peace accord with the Palestinians. She won a party primary election last week.

"Mr Olmert decided to step down because of several corruption cases against him."

One of the most insightful articles about Olmert came from Tony Karon at Rootless Cosmopolitan: "If you think it strange that Ehud Olmert is still prime minister of Israel even after it's official inquiry into the war found him to be an incompetent shlemiel, that may simply be a sign of the leadership crisis in Israel. That Olmert is a moral and political midget is plainly accepted by an Israeli public that had given him approval ratings smaller than the margin of error even before the Winograd report was published. The fact that he's still in office after having been found to have recklessly plunged his country into a disastrous strategic defeat in Lebanon is a sure sign that Israel's political leadership is riddled with moral and political midgets. Olmert may still be there because, to borrow a phrase from Hunter S. Thompson, in a generation of swine, the one-eyed pig is king."

Perhaps, if impeachment hadn't been taken off the table, and accountability for his high crimes and misdemeanors demanded of Bush, he could have preceded his shlemiel, Ehud Olmert, into disgraceful resignation or put in the slammer where he belongs..