By Dana Milbank
Tuesday, March 27, 2007

An imperiled attorney general, an unpopular war, a hung-over housing market and a presidential approval level of 32 percent: White House officials took all that into consideration and made their decision.

They would have President Bush do another event promoting cellulosic ethanol.

"Most of our ethanol is made from corn," the commander in chief announced yesterday morning, posing in the White House driveway with three "flex-fuel" cars. "But the federal government is spending a lot of money to try to develop new technologies that will mean that ethanol could be made from wood chips or switch grass."

It was another milepost in the shriveling of a presidency. What began as "with us or against us" now must share time with "wood chips or switch grass." It was Bush's sixth alternative-fuel event this year -- and a seventh comes this morning when he inspects newfangled Postal Service vehicles.

These statistics carry some irony for a man who ridiculed hybrid vehicles and instead promised "great goals" when he ran for president. Viewed another way, however, his role as uncompensated pitchman for gasoline alternatives makes perfect sense: If anybody needs a new fuel source, it is George W. Bush in 2007.

The president was running on fumes even before Bob Novak described him as "alone" in a column yesterday. "In half a century, I have not seen a president so isolated from his own party in Congress -- not Jimmy Carter, not even Richard Nixon as he faced impeachment," Novak wrote.

Only half a dozen members of the White House press corps bothered to attend Bush's event in the driveway yesterday -- and they had come to ask about Alberto Gonzales's diminished life expectancy as attorney general because of the prosecutor firings.

"What do you say about support for Gonzales falling?" CNN's Ed Henry shouted when Bush finished his flex-fuel pitch. Another reporter shouted out a similar Gonzales question. Henry repeated his question. The president only smiled and waved, as though the reporters had complimented his suit.

Bush's affection for alternative fuels has been strong since May 2005, when he visited a Shell station on Benning Road NE to see hydrogen pumped into a fuel-cell vehicle.

That was followed by five alternative-energy events for Bush in 2006, according to Mark Knoller of CBS News, who keeps meticulous records of the president's travels. Bush examined hybrid-vehicle batteries in Milwaukee, inspected alternative-fuel police cars in Alabama and spoke at a renewable-energy conference in St. Louis. While touring an ethanol research lab in Colorado, Bush, wearing hard hat and goggles, spilled a container labeled "poplar."

This year, flex fuels have become a Bush standby. He toured an ethanol research plant in North Carolina, an ethanol plant in Brazil and a cellulosic ethanol lab in Delaware. A month ago, he inspected a Toyota Prius hybrid and an all-electric vehicle on the White House grounds.

The president's new hobby has done little to avert his decline. When he toured the hydrogen station in 2005, his support was just shy of 48 percent. As he checked out three flex-fuel cars at the White House yesterday, Bush's public standing was a third lower -- and he struggled to muster enthusiasm.

The president, escorted by the chief executives from Detroit's Big Three, arrived 20 minutes late for yesterday's South Lawn event. Eight minutes later, he was on his way back inside.

Bush walked directly toward the cameras when Ford's Alan Mulally caught his arm and gave him a tour of a hydrogen-electric version of the Ford Edge. Bush accepted a power cord from Mulally, plugged the car in with some difficulty -- and ended the tour after about a minute, not having looked under the hood or inside the passenger compartment.

Next, GM's Rick Wagoner showed him a flex-fuel Chevy Impala with green and yellow racing stripes; Bush rapped on a passenger door twice with the back of his hand and ended that tour after 45 seconds. Finally, Chrysler's Tom LaSorda showed Bush the bio-diesel Jeep Grand Cherokee. The president put his hand on the hood and walked off after 30 seconds.

"I would hope that Congress would move expeditiously on our plan to reduce gasoline usage by 20 percent over the next 10 years," the president announced.

"We very much share the president's vision," said Wagoner.

"We at Ford absolutely are supportive of the president's goal," Mulally agreed.

"We're very committed to this as well," LaSorda piped up.

Of course, the automakers are supporting Bush's plan because they oppose efforts in Congress to cut gasoline usage twice as fast by imposing strict fuel-economy standards. But Bush and his guests made no mention of this as they left the green vehicles in the driveway and returned to the West Wing. The Secret Service's Chevrolet Suburbans, moved out of the camera shot minutes before the event, were free to return -- under power of neither wood chips nor sawgrass.