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FRANKFORT, KY. Brett Hall, the tough-talking press secretary for Gov. Ernie Fletcher, resigned Saturday, a day after criticizing a high-ranking state Republican Party official.

The three-sentence statement announcing Hall's resignation did not give a reason for his departure.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Friday, Hall had criticized state Republican Party Chairman Darrell Brock. That criticism came a day after he publicly used a profanity in answering a reporter's question.

"There is a faction -- and Darrell Brock seems to be in the middle of it -- that wants the governor out and has been working on this for some time," Hall said.

Hall later backed off the statement, which was made on the eve of a Republican state central committee meeting in Louisville on Saturday.

Hall has been a tireless cheerleader for the Fletcher administration since being hired into the $110,000-a-year job last September, and he praised the governor as "without a doubt the finest person I've ever worked for."

The resignation came on a day of changes for the Fletcher administration. Earlier Saturday, Fletcher announced that Finance Secretary Robbie Rudolph would serve as his running mate in the 2007 re-election campaign, replacing Lt. Gov. Steve Pence, who said last week he would not join Fletcher on the ticket again.

In the written statement, Fletcher praised Hall's work.

"Brett's broad knowledge has been an asset to me and my administration," Fletcher said.

Hall said working for Fletcher as been "the height of my career."

Hall, 54, was the fifth person to hold the high-stress job in the past two years. He dealt with an onslaught of negative publicity, including the indictment of Fletcher on charges related to a state hiring scandal and the desertion of his running mate from the ticket for next year's re-election campaign.

Hall, a former south Texas newspaper reporter, dropped the "f-bomb" during a question-and-answer session with the Capitol press corps Thursday, getting himself in trouble with his Republican bosses. It was the second time this year that Hall's vocabulary has landed him in the hot seat.

Brock declined to comment on Hall's resignation.

Bill Kenyon, a political strategist who served as a freelance adviser to the Fletcher administration last year, said Hall has performed admirably under trying circumstances.

"I recommended Brett for the job because he would be a good steady hand," Kenyon said. "He is a clear thinker and a good communicator. He's the kind of guy you want in a foxhole with you."

Kenyon said Hall, a journalism major from Trinity University in Texas whose first job was as a crime reporter, was trying to be casual with members of the press.

"I think Brett was just trying to talk like reporters do," Kenyon said. "It's a popular word in every newsroom I've ever been in."

Tom Latek, Frankfort reporter for Clear Channel Radio in Kentucky, said Hall's utterance wasn't shocking to the veteran reporters who cover Frankfort politics.

"To a lot of people in the North, those are just adjectives," Latek said. "It's nothing you don't hear in the newsroom."

Throughout his brief tenure, Hall staunchly defended Fletcher, blaming the entire hiring scandal on the political ambitions of Attorney General Greg Stumbo. He claimed Stumbo, a Democrat, wants to be governor and is prosecuting Fletcher in hopes of weakening him and the Republican Party. Stumbo said he will not run against Fletcher next year.

Fred Davis, head of a California political consulting firm, said Hall is one of the best communicators in the business, having started out as a crime reporter in south Texas before going into public relations.

"He's the kind of guy who people like, who reporters like," Davis said. "He's a real person who speaks from the heart, and you can trust him, you can believe him, although sometimes speaking from the heart gets him into trouble."

Hall was hired to handle "news media relations, scheduling, speech writing, event planning and public affairs" for the governor.

The previous communications director, Carla Blanton, had resigned after only a short stint on the job, citing the stress of coping with the hiring scandal. Blanton was making about $82,000 per year. Others who served in the job were Doug Hogan, Wes Irvin and Jim Host, a Lexington businessman and former commerce secretary.

Before coming to Frankfort, Hall was a public affairs consultant in Stockton, N.J. A graduate of Trinity University in San Antonio, Hall has worked on political campaigns around the country, and served briefly as a freelance lobbyists in New Jersey.

He initially came to Frankfort to help boost Fletcher's image after the hiring scandal broke.