The Anti-Bush Movement

So what's his goal?

"If nothing else, the Bush administration's focus on ethanol is good politics. The ethanol boom is helping two big industries -- domestic auto makers and farmers -- while imposing virtually no pain on anybody else. It could give Republicans an election-year boost in the Midwest, where most ethanol is produced and consumed."

Spy vs. Spy

Karen DeYoung writes in The Washington Post: "Early this summer, a new strategy for combating terrorism, described by its authors as 'revolutionary' in concept, arrived on President Bush's desk. The highly classified National Implementation Plan for the first time set government-wide goals and assigned responsibility for achieving them to specific departments and agencies.

"Written by officials at the National Counterterrorism Center, under a directive signed by the president last winter, the 160-page plan aspires to achieve what has eluded the Bush administration in the five years since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks: bringing order and direction to the fight against terrorism."

Is there a problem here?

"The proof that it is all working, White House officials often say, is that there has been no attack on U.S. soil since 2001.

"But critics say that after nearly five years, the fight against terrorism often seems like a chaotic work in progress."

Signing Statements Watch

Charlie Savage writes in the Boston Globe: "The American Bar Association's House of Delegates voted yesterday to call on President Bush and future presidents not to issue 'signing statements' that claim the power to bypass laws, and it urged Congress to pass legislation to help courts put a stop to the growing practice.

"Meeting in Hawaii, the policy-making body for the world's largest organization of attorneys endorsed the findings of its bipartisan task force, which last month issued a unanimous report portraying signing statements as an unconstitutional power grab by presidents. Under the Constitution, the report said, presidents have only two options when presented with a bill Congress has passed: sign it and enforce all its components, or veto it. . . .

"Outgoing ABA President Michael Greco, a Boston attorney who created the task force following a Globe report on Bush's use of signing statements, said the ABA had acted to protect the American system of checks and balances that divides power between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. . . .

"The ABA itself has come under fire from some liberal law professors -- including Laurence Tribe of Harvard Law School -- who say that it should have focused its criticism on Bush for his use of signing statements to advance a controversial view of his own powers. The ABA's critics argued that it distorted the issue because it wanted to appear bipartisan."

Crawford Watch

Peter Wallsten writes for the Los Angeles Times: "Tugging at their pride, and perhaps straining their loyalty, the exerciser in chief presided Tuesday over the latest inductees into the 100-Degree Club -- the clique of White House aides brave (or perhaps gullible) enough to run three miles in the blazing August sun of central Texas. . . .

"The prize for those who completed the exercise: a 100-Degree Club T-shirt and a photo with the president, along with a sunburn and a good story to tell friends back home.

"Bush, a one-time avid jogger who was forced to stop after developing knee problems in 2003, rode circles on his bicycle around the runners, offering playful taunts and encouragement."

And what else is the president doing?

Here's spokesman Tony Snow at yesterday's gaggle: "Today the President got up, had his normal intelligence briefing. He also had briefings from the National Security Advisor and the Homeland Security Advisor. And I believe they're working on a dock today."

Kevin Corke writes for NBC News that CNN White House producer Erika Dimmler's dog is making the Bush watch a little more tolerable for the press corps.

"Her name is Abigail and she's a 5-year-old Jack Russell Terrier.

"Sporting a chestnut-speckled white coat and the softest little ears you've ever felt, Abby did what no amount of Jay Leno, Dave Chappelle or Jon Stewart could do -- get just about everyone in the White House press corps to smile."

Bush and the Bubble

Scripps Howard columnist Ann McFeatters writes: "To Bush, being president means never having to say he's sorry. To tell him he might be wrong or bring him bad news or cause dissonance in his serene world is to antagonize him and be thought disloyal.

"It's now well acknowledged that Bush is happy in his bubble of self-imposed isolation. He meets with foreigners but without true give-and-take even in crisis conversations. Foreigners visit the White House as they used to go on bended knee to ancient Rome. Bush travels but sees few real people. All is scripted. He talks with advisers but rarely interacts with members of Congress, even senior Republicans.

"He seems to care nothing about winning hearts and minds in other countries. Foreign leaders say he lectures but does not listen. He does not have the long telephone conversations late at night that former President Clinton loved to keep him in touch with what others were thinking. He seems indifferent to what experts think."

Froomkin Watch

It's August. Bush is on vacation. So it's time for me to do a little maintenance work on some of my handy-dandy resources, like my hoary Who's Who page.

Barring major news, the column will go dark Thursday and Friday -- and will return on Monday, August 14.