WASHINGTON: US President George W. Bush’s desk kept piling higher with bad news.

There were personnel problems that went from bad to worse, uncertainty in an Iraq war showdown with congressional Democrats, the impending departure of his favourite foreign ally.

But the past week did bring one very good piece of news: Talks on an immigration overhaul produced a deal between the Bush administration and a bipartisan group of senators. The agreement fed hopes the president might achieve a long-sought goal and see his second term produce a significant domestic accomplishment.

An elated White House threw everything it had at Thursday’s immigration breakthrough.

It rushed out a Bush statement that celebrated the complicated compromise as containing everything the president most wanted. “A much-needed solution to the problem of illegal immigration,” he called it. In case Bush’s glee was not clear on paper, he came to the South Lawn 90 minutes later to make a statement before television cameras.

The reaction spoke volumes about how little there is to cheer about at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

“It’s a port in the storm and an oasis in the dust,” Rutgers political science professor Ross Baker said about the immigration deal.

For one thing, Bush cannot seem to get a break on the people in his orbit: His announcement of Army Lt-Gen Douglas Lute as a new “war czar” fell flat. Lute is a seasoned bureaucracy-buster. But the president’s decision to create the position more than four years into a difficult, contentious war was viewed as too little, too late.

--Bush caved on World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz after weeks of controversy over a generous bank pay package that Wolfowitz arranged for his girlfriend. The president was concerned that demands for Wolfowitz’s ouster were as much about the former Pentagon official’s important role in the Iraq invasion as about his ethical lapse. So Bush was determined to stand by his man. But when attempts to negotiate a solution won little support, Bush made a rare concession and cut Wolfowitz loose.

--Bush received a farewell visit from British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who will be succeeded in six weeks by a man unlikely to hand Bush the same best-friends partnership on Iraq. Gordon Brown, Britain’s treasury chief, has signalled there will be a change in his country’s war role.

-- It was only a week ago that Bush aides boasted privately that their strategy of waiting out the firestorm surrounding Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales seemed to have worked, with Gonzales beyond serious jeopardy. Then a fresh burst of news put Gonzales’ job back in doubt.

A second good-news story, a trade deal between congressional Democratic leaders and the White House, was drowned out, too. It could pave the way for Bush to gain lawmakers’ approval for several pending free-trade agreements.

“You always expect tough sledding in the second term. You expect ups and downs,” said Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute. “You don’t expect downs and downs.”

All this makes the immigration announcement that much more significant.—AP