Saturn is in the process of making the final pass over President Bush’s ascendant between now and June 2, and his poll numbers have slipped below 30% for the first time. Even conservatives are now calling him the worst president ever. The ascendant is the cusp of the first house of identity, and is also called the “rising sign” because it’s the sign that was rising on the horizon at the time of birth. It forms one end of a polarity axis with the descendant which is the cusp of the seventh house of partnership. As such, the ascendant/descendant axis deals with issues of personal identity versus identity in relationships, and personal experiences (first house) versus experiences shared with partners as well as open enemies (seventh house).

The Bush White House has been a cabal of partners in crime. Bush is famously loyal to his staff and his appointees, and as long as those around him demonstrate their loyalty in return their jobs have been safe. Faced with plummeting poll numbers and under pressure from Republican congresspeople who fear the end of their own power in Washington, Bush has hired Josh Bolten to clean house. As a result, Bush’s long-time associate and press secretary Scott McClellan (aka Puffy McMoonface [tm Stephanie Miller]) has been replaced with Tony Snow, and Karl Rove lost one of his jobs (policy wonk) and is now down to one (eviscerating Democrats in the next election).

The exposure of Bush’s deficiencies therefore exposes the entire Bush conglomerate including all partners in crime (7th house). The seventh house deals not only with partner and spouses but also with open enemies. The long letter from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (president if Iran, the open enemy of the US) requesting open dialogue and negotiation forces the Bush White House to appear intractable and unwilling to participate in world affairs in a way that does not involve strongarm tactics. The call by retired US generals for Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation has exposed Bush’s incompetence in the one area in which he is admired by the faithful, and his poor choice of a four star general to lead the CIA shows his further exposes his ignorance in the workings of government since the CIA was designed to be totally separate from the department of defense.

The exposure on Thursday by USA Today that the US government has accumulated phone records of millions of American citizens has sent the president’s poll numbers to a new low, the third lowest in American history. The trine of Uranus (surprise) to Jupiter (opportunity) may be behind some of the revelations that are coming out of the White House now, offering US citizens an opportunity (Jupiter) to liberate themselvesw (Uranus) from the sideshow drama that has become the Bush presidency.