The longer a party holds power, it's harder to make sure everyone marches to the same tune.

Their biggest problem is developing some bipartisan way to deal with Iraq. They're still alternating between bipartisan rhetoric and impugning the patriotism of those who disagree with Bush. The daily bad news from Iraq doesn't help.

He admonished reporters to refrain from long questions and -- amid concern that he is overreaching on his own powers -- joked that he had signed an executive order to ban them. I sensed kind of a latent indignation in him.

He's up against it. The immediate priority is to keep either house from turning to the other side.

Honesty is a huge issue because even people who disagreed with his policies respected his integrity.

Instead he remains in the same loop. It takes a certain kind of self-confidence to shake up your comfort level and bring in new people who might challenge you. Bush has his inner compass and doesn't want to disturb it. That's what denial can do to a man.

It's hard for me to see how he gets back up into a positive rating in the opinion polls. Congress has got no stomach for much of the agenda that he has.

The base in Congress is eroding as members worry about their own electorates, start to back away from him on immigration, start to back away on Iraq and start to consider the president as an optional ally rather than a vital one.

It's Libby now, pretty soon it could be Rove, and eventually there will be a danger for the White House that people are going to start asking if it is conceivable that they were acting without the approval of their bosses.

It's not inevitable that he will stand in gloom forever.