Lou Dobbs stepped down today from the controversial role as an advocacy anchor at CNN at the end of his show, announcing plans to seek a more activist role.

In an e-mail to CNN staff members, Jonathan Klein (CNN President) described the parting as “extremely amicable,” and said Dobbs’ replacement would be announced soon.

Dobbs cited the growth of the middle class, the creation of jobs, health care, immigration policy, the environment, climate change and the U.S. military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as “the major issues of our time.”  But, he said, “Each of those issues is, in my opinion, informed by our capacity to demonstrate strong resilience of our now weakened capitalist economy and demonstrate the political will to overcome the lack of true representation in Washington, D.C. I believe these to be profoundly, critically important issues and I will continue to strive to deal honestly and straightforwardly with those issues in the future.”

His no-holds-barred, sometimes acerbic style brought him a loyal following, but also attracted controversy both to him and to the network, especially over the subject of illegal immigrants.

Dobbs will continue as anchor of The Lou Dobbs Show, a daily radio show that began in March 2008 and is distributed to more than 160 stations nationwide by United Stations Radio Networks Inc.

We link to the CNN website post and a video of Dobbs goodbye segment.