This has been a tough summer for the Bush Administration. While the President tries to relax on his five week Texas vacation, he’s had to contend with deteriorating military and political conditions in Iraq, a Woodstock-like peace protest at the edge of his Crawford compound led by Gold Star mom Cindy Sheehan, declining public opinion polls (that are echoed by “even worse” internal polling, says one Bush adviser), high oil prices and a recognition that things are not likely to turn around anytime soon. A senior Bush official attributes the president’s collapsing poll numbers to “high gas prices and a lot of anxiety about the war” and acknowledges “that’s not likely to change anytime soon.” A cruel summer is likely to fade into an autumn of discontent as congressmen like [Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC), who has renounced his support for Bush’s war] come back to Washington having heard complaints from constituents.
