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.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.