“…(A)t this stage of the game, barring some imaginative political moves that bear some resemblance to the Bush Administration circa 2002, Republicans on Capitol Hill and even some longtime Bush team members in various Cabinet level departments say this Administration is done for.

‘You run down the list of things we thought we could accomplish and you have to wonder what we thought we were thinking,’ says a Bush Administration member who joined on in 2001. ‘You get the impression that we’re more than listless. We’re sunk.'”

Robert Novak breaks the code of silence: “For two full days, George W. Bush was bashed. He was taken to task on his handling of stem cell research, population control, the Iraq war and, especially, Hurricane Katrina. The critics were no left-wing bloggers. They were rich, mainly Republican and presumably Bush voters in the last two presidential elections.

The Bush-bashing occurred last weekend at the annual Aspen conference sponsored by the New York investment firm Forstmann Little & Co. Over 200 invited guests, mostly prestigious, arrived Thursday night (many by private aircraft) and stayed until Sunday morning for more than golf, hikes and gourmet meals. They faithfully attended the discussions presided over by PBS’s Charlie Rose on such serious subjects as ‘global poverty and human rights’ and ‘the ‘new’ world economy.’ The connecting link was hostility to President Bush.” (townhall.com )