Peering Inside Bush's Head

"With 2008 looking like a tough year for Republicans, Mr. Jillson said lawmakers would look back to their districts, rather than to Washington and the White House, for guidance on how to vote. That was abundantly clear on immigration, when even Mr. Bush's closest Republican allies -- including two Texans, Senators John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison -- openly opposed him.

"'When John Cornyn defects from the president,' Mr. Jillson said, 'you know the president's mojo is completely gone.'"

Robert D. Novak writes in his syndicated column: "It is difficult to exaggerate the pessimism about the immediate political future voiced by Republicans in Congress when not on the record. With an unpopular president waging an unpopular war, they foresee electoral catastrophe in 2008, with Democratic gains in both the House and Senate and Hillary Clinton in the White House."

Eleanor Clift writes in Newsweek about Vic Gold, a longtime Republican operative who has turned against Bush and Cheney. Gold "calls Bush 'President Dodo.' He's known Bush since the '80 campaign, and while he doesn't really think he's dumb, he knows he can be manipulated. 'He's playing the role of president, strutting around,' says Gold. 'He's the weakest president in my memory.'"

See my Friday column, Put a Fork in Him.

Bartlett on the Bubble

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Robert Draper interviews departing White House Counselor Dan Bartlett for GQ.

Draper: "To read some of Karl Rove's recent comments, you'd think the state of the administration has never been rosier. Does anyone provide a reality check for the White House?"

Bartlett: "The president's closest advisers are paid to make sure he understands every aspect of the decision he has to make. And I can confidently say that in the five years I've had this job, we haven't walked blindly into decisions. Now have there been missteps? Of course. But I don't buy this notion that Bush lives in a bubble. You can disagree fundamentally with the decisions he makes, but I don't think they are based on a lack of understanding of what's going on around him."

The Putin Visit

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Peter Baker writes in The Washington Post from Kennebunkport: "Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived here Sunday for a patch-up session at the Bush family compound as war protesters filled this resort town to demand the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

"Putin, the first world leader invited by Bush to stay with him at Walker's Point, the oceanfront estate built by Bush's great-grandfather, headed for a 24-hour visit intended to cool recent tensions in U.S.-Russian relations over issues such as missile defense and Kosovo independence. Although aides predicted no breakthroughs, there was hope for disagreeing more agreeably."

Jim Rutenberg writes for the New York Times: "Mr. Bush, for his part, was in a jovial mood, joking with reporters as he waited to greet Mr. Putin for dinner. He said that his fishing earlier in the day had been 'lousy,' saying that the reporters with him here had scared them away."

Washington Times reporter Joseph Curl informed his print colleagues that Bush also engaged in some baseball talk, and said he watched Saturday night's game between the Boston Red Sox and the Texas Rangers.