What's the Plan?

Utah Bound

Bush travels to one of the reddest states today to speak with one of the reddest groups around: The Veterans of Foreign Wars. But even in Salt Lake City, he is running into some opposition.

Glen Warchol writes in the Salt Lake Tribune: "Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson called for 'the biggest demonstration this state has ever seen' to protest President Bush's appearance Monday before a national veterans convention. . . .

"In an e-mail Wednesday to about 10 activist leaders, the maverick mayor of Utah's capital called for a diverse demonstration to greet Bush when he speaks to the Veterans of Foreign Wars at the Salt Palace Convention Center. The mayor plans to join the protesters. . . .

"The mayor's message drew a howl of outrage from Mike Parkin, senior vice commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars Atomic Post 4355 in Salt Lake City.

" 'Excuse my French, but - that son of a bitch!' he said. 'It makes the mayor look very, very unpatriotic. It makes him look despicable.' "

Bob Bernick Jr. and Lisa Riley Roche write in the Deseret Morning News: "While his job approval ratings are suffering nationwide, Bush remains popular in Utah, which gave him his largest margin of victory of any state in 2000. A June 2 poll conducted for the Morning News and KSL-TV by Dan Jones & Associates found that 74 percent of Utahns like the job Bush is doing as president. Only 15 percent disapproved of Bush's job performance."

Caren Bohan writes for Reuters: "At a park near the VFW venue, Celeste Zappala, 58, the Philadelphia mother of a National Guardsman killed in Iraq, plans to lead a protest. Her son Sherwood Baker was killed in Iraq last year and she is part of anti-war mother Cindy Sheehan's group, Gold Star Families for Peace. . . .

"Sheehan's group is also airing television ads in Salt Lake City accusing Bush of having lied about Iraq. One station, an ABC affiliate, is refusing to air the ads."

Meanwhile at Camp Casey

Mike Allen writes in The Washington Post: "Camp Casey, which started with one mom and a grievance, mushroomed over the weekend into a massive settlement with a party tent for 2,000, a shuttle-bus service and an elaborate catering operation that deposited a 26-foot-long refrigerator truck, generators, and restaurant-quality ranges and warming ovens in a field next to President Bush's ranch. . . .

"The main camp -- featuring the white tent, which is so big it has eight peaks and is known to the White House press corps as the 'Cirque du Soleil' -- is just outside a Secret Service checkpoint at the back of Bush's ranch."

Elisabeth Bumiller writes in the New York Times: "Supporters of Ms. Sheehan, the mother of an American soldier killed in Iraq, are feeding hundreds of people each day at an elaborate new antiwar encampment abutting a Secret Service checkpoint less than a mile from the president's ranch. Mr. Bush, who went on a 17-mile bike ride on Saturday with the seven-time Tour de France winner, Lance Armstrong, is in his own presidential vacation encampment, and was largely focused last week on downtime and exercise."

Angela K. Brown writes for the Associated Press: "Iraq war protesters camping out near President Bush's ranch got some support Sunday night from a prominent figure in the anti-Vietnam war movement: folk singer Joan Baez.