Just when he has a chance to assume a front-row seat in the White House briefing room, Major Garrett is leaving Fox News and returning to print journalism.

Garrett, who has been widely recognized as a straight-arrow reporter caught in the crossfire between President Obama’s top aides and the network of Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck, is joining National Journal as a congressional correspondent.

The hostility between the administration and Fox “never wore me down,” Garrett said Wednesday, but “of course it made my job more difficult. . . . I’d be a liar if I said otherwise.” But, he added, “I was a conscientious objector in that war. I never fought it.”