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Poll: Majority Of Americans Feel Prosecutors’ Firings Were Political
Yet another bit of bad news for President George W. Bush and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales: a new Newsweek poll finds that a majority of Americans believes the controversial firing of Republican-affiliated prosecutors were indeed political.
A clear majority of the public believes the Bush administration’s firing of eight U.S. attorneys was politically motivated, according to a new NEWSWEEK Poll. And the survey showed only weak support for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
Hopefully Gonzales is reaching for his life jacket because the prospects are increasing that he’ll be thrown over the side just as former White House counsel Harriet Miers was earlier in the week. With Gonzales’ poll numbers heading south and with tepid (if that) support from GOPers in Congress we may soon learn that he has decided to spend more time with his family. The Newsweek poll offers little good news for Bush & Co.:
Fifty-eight percent of those surveyed—including 45 percent of Republicans–say the ouster of the federal prosecutors was driven by political concerns. Those attitudes seem to reflect a broader view of the Bush administration’s approach. When asked if the administration has introduced politics into too many areas of government, 47 percent said they agree.The NEWSWEEK Poll results offer little good news for Gonzales, who faces pressure to resign from Democrats and a handful of Republicans. Fewer than one third (32 percent) of those surveyed want him to stay remain in his job, while slightly more than one third (35 percent) say he should quit. Another third say they don’t know what Gonzales should do as a result of the slow-burning controversy. The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 4 points.
The reason why this poll should be troubling to the White House is that it means the explanations of Tony Snow, and defense-lawyer type comments from talk show radio hosts such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and some of the assumptions underlying news coverage on Fox News are increasingly not working.
The idea of government by the base, of the base and for the base partially lost its luster due to the 2006 election results but, more than ever, it seems that the Bush administration is facing a fundamental problem: the part of the base that now trusts what it says is shrinking. Is this a case of credibility problems coming home to roost?
More storm clouds for the administration: a new CNN poll finds that confidence in the war is down lower than ever.
3 Responses to “Poll: Majority Of Americans Feel Prosecutors’ Firings Were Political”
The WH and DOJ shot itself in the foot by putting out a confusing array of misinformation, which always makes it look like they have something to hide. If Bush refuses to dump Gonzales, (who deserves to go because heputs the president’s interests ahead of the Constitution on every issue), and claims executive privilege when Rove is subpoenaed, look for these poll numbers to climb even higher. Their only defense appears to be the firing of all USA’s by Clinton at the beginning of his term, which is a very weak analogy to what is going on now.
excuse me, isnt the poll question a bit of a red herring? Theyre ALLOWED to fire prosecutors for political reasons, which could include not trusting them to endorse GOPers for reelection, for ex. They being political appointees. What theyre NOT allowed to do is to fire them in order to stop particular cases, or to interfere in particular prosecutions. Which they may well have done, but the poll doestnt seem to ask about that.
Bush is not going to get rid of Gonzales. WIthout a republican controlled congress he won’t be able to install anyone who will readily violate our personal liberties or use the Constitution for toilet paper. Gonzales will be in office until Jan 21 2009.