Take it for what it's worth

Doug Thompson, publisher of the online journal "Capitol Hill Blue," writes on June 4 that

President George W. Bush's increasingly erratic behavior and wide mood swings has the halls of the West Wing buzzing lately as aides privately express growing concern over their leader’s state of mind.

In meetings with top aides and administration officials, the President goes from quoting the Bible in one breath to obscene tantrums against the media, Democrats and others that he classifies as "enemies of the state."

Worried White House aides paint a portrait of a man on the edge, increasingly wary of those who disagree with him and paranoid of a public that no longer trusts his policies in Iraq or at home.

"It reminds me of the Nixon days," says a longtime GOP political consultant with contacts in the White House. "Everybody is an enemy; everybody is out to get him. That's the mood over there."

Now, personally, I'm taking this with some salt, I'm just not sure if it should be a grain or a pound. Capitol Hill Blue's website declares "Because nobody's life, liberty or property is safe while Congress is in session," a standard slogan of the libertarian right, and its own FAQs indicate that the stories as often as not are ones that couldn't get published elsewhere (perhaps for being inadequately sourced?), written by reporters who celebrate their absolute cynicism and a commitment to the notion that everybody but everybody in government is a no-good thieving liar. So I do wonder how much of this is just a case of making too much out of too little.

In fact, I regard Thompson as in the Drudge category, one who is rather too willing to accept rumor as fact. And I find it curious that in his own online bio he makes no reference to the time he spent as a staffer in Ronald Reagan's White House.

Some people would say that background makes his assertions more credible. Me, the whole thing makes me reach for the salt shaker.

But read the whole thing anyway. Just in case.