CRAWFORD - US President George W. Bush faces a springtime of discontent, with a former top strategist turned critic, his chief spokesman sidelined with cancer, and top aides in Democratic lawmakers` sights.
The war in Iraq still cripples his public support, and grumbling about the unpopular conflict has grown louder among his Republican allies even as Democrats push to set a timetable for bringing US troops home.
His attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, and his top political strategist, Karl Rove, are embroiled in a controversy over a mass firing of federal prosecutors for what critics say were purely political -- not judicial -- reasons.
While the 2008 election to succeed Bush looms large, these are not just the second-term doldrums that affect so many US presidents, advisers acknowledge privately.
The White House, where loyalty to Bush is a paramount virtue, reeled recently when a long-time campaign strategist who helped secure his 2000 and 2004 election victories, Matthew Dowd, became the first member of the president`s inner circle to break with him publicly on Iraq.
Dowd, who has a son in the US Army, told news outlets that he had become disenchanted with Bush and that it was time to heed the public`s clamor for withdrawal.
"We should admit that it`s a mess there and we need to get our soldiers home and the loss of blood is not going to accomplish anything," Dowd told National Public Radio.
In response, Bush said his former aide was gripped by "anguish" and was understandably "emotional" about the war because of his son but said as president he was required to "take a sober look" at winning the war.
Shortly thereafter, the White House announced that Bush`s top day-to-day adviser on Iraq and Afghanistan, Meghan O`Sullivan, was leaving sometime in the coming months.
O`Sullivan, 37, said in her resignation letter that she felt confident that the security crackdown in Bagdhad and restive Al-Anbar province would bear fruit -- but other advisers say the mood inside the White House is much tenser.
One reason is the pitched battle with Democrats who control the US Congress for the first time since Bush took office, and who have tied emergency war funds to a timetable that could require US troops to leave Iraq in 2008.
Bush has vowed to veto such legislation, and while Democrats lack the votes to override it they have not backed down on that front or in other battles with the White House, such as the prosecutor purge.
That controversy, and signs that some of Gonzales` aides misled Congress, has drawn fire from Democrats, and most recently, senior Republican Newt Gringrich. The embattled attorney general is expected to testify on April 17.
Democrats have also pushed -- unsuccessfully so far -- for Rove to submit to formal questioning, but the White House has said he will only talk behind closed doors and with no recording or transcript.
All of this has come shortly after Vice President Dick Cheney`s former chief of staff was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice in a case stemming from the leak of a CIA operative`s identity after her diplomat husband assailed the administration for war in Iraq.
And the White House must deal with all of these headaches without one of its public relations big guns: press secretary Tony Snow has been sidelined indefinitely while he battles cancer.
Snow, 51, survived a bout with colon cancer in 2005 but was diagnosed last month with a recurrence and had surgery to remove a growth in his abdomen.

04/09/2007 14:10 GMT