A new poll has more bad news for the Bush administration — and a continued warning for Democrats:
U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should resign, most Americans say, and White House aides should be forced to testify before Congress about their involvement in the dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys.
In a new Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll, conducted April 5 to 9, 53 percent of respondents said Gonzales should leave his post. Seventy-four percent said White House staff members who had discussions about the firings with Gonzales’s chief of staff should testify under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which the White House has refused to allow.
That is a sizable number, and it means that if the White House continues to try to portray this as strictly a partisan fishing expedition, the American people are going to interpret it as political baiting….on the White House’s part. Moreover, add the poll to a clear bipartisan sentiment that Gonzales needs to go, and President George W. Bush will be using more of his rapidly-depleting (or depleted) political capital as the sole political force backing him.
But Democrats don’t have a clear path on this, either:
Still, a strong majority in the survey, 63 percent, said they believe the Democratic-led Congress is seeking political gain in the investigations of the attorney dismissals, unauthorized wiretapping of U.S. citizens and substandard conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Only 28 percent said the inquiries were driven by concern over ethics.
“People tend to be cynical about these government investigations,” said Susan Pinkus, the Los Angeles Times polling director. “Whether they think it’s for political advantage or not, they want to get to the truth.”
Translation: If the Democrats press for the truth, most Americans (which will not include talk show hosts Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and others who can be counted on to back whatever the White House line is on almost all issues) will be supporting them. But if the Democrats overreach and greatly grandstand, they could lose support.
But the worst news in this is for the Bush administration which — once again — faces a major credibility problem with a large chunk of those being polled relying on Congress to get to the truth. MORE:
In other findings, the poll showed that a strong majority of Americans believe the U.S. is on the wrong track and President George W. Bush’s approval rating was 36 percent, a record low. In addition, a majority of respondents said they disapproved of the performance of the Democratic-led Congress, in part because of continuing divisions over the war in Iraq.
So once again there is worsening news for Bush — and his clout among Republicans who may not wish to risk their political scalps to go to the mat for him forever. But there are warning clouds on the horizon for the Democrats, too, that the party needs to get its act together.
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.