Eating Right

Tough summer for President Bush.

Gas prices are shaky, and the stock market is shakier. The death toll climbs in the Iraq war. Democrats call for his impeachment, Republicans for greater leadership. And many American adults just don't like the way he is handling his job. In fact a majority -- 52 percent, according to a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll -- say they "strongly" disapprove.

There is in the land a general malcontentedness, a frustration with Bush and anxiety about the nation's future and its place in the world. There is some positive news for the president: Sixteen percent of adults polled strongly approve of what he is doing. Someone somewhere is still on his side, saying: Heckuva job!

You can find two of those folks at a smoky, sprawling crab shack on the east side of Frederick, a few miles from Camp David. Bush is still their hero.

Gas hikes and Wall Street horrors are seen as part of the economic cycle. And as for the war . . .

The war in Iraq, says one of the two, Kevin Sheehan, "is about the survival of our country."

And "the most humane thing you can do in war is completely destroy the enemy," he says.

Together with business partner Joan McIntyre, Sheehan owns Jug Bridge Seafood. Spend a few nights in conversation with them and you'll find out who the Bush lovers are.

Jug Bridge Seafood sits on Highway 144, just east of downtown Frederick. The restaurant seats 300. It's got a huge kitchen. On a great day, McIntyre and Sheehan serve more than 200 people. There's an all-you-can-eat buffet for $23.95, or $31.95 with Maryland crabs.

There's also room in the lumbering hulk for three other, smaller establishments: an ice cream shop, a soon-to-be-opened fondue room and the Monkey LaLa Bar. Before they bought the building, "it was a vast ugly hole," McIntyre says.

At one level, the joint is just another seafood cafe. There are life preservers hanging by nails, lighthouse paintings on the walls, model ships propped here and there.

At another level, it's a Gibraltar-rock of conservatism, the kind of place that, if you're in that 52 percent, might make you stop and catch your breath. Near the front door hang signed photos of and letters from various Republicans -- Dick Cheney, members of the Bush family, Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon. There's a big Robert Ehrlich campaign sign against one wall.