Zogby: 51% Now Support Considering Impeachment If Bush Lied About Iraq
by Steve
The impeachment question is back amongst the pollsters. You may recall that Zogby asked a question several months ago about whether or not respondents would want Congress to consider impeachment proceedings against Bush if it was shown that he lied to get us into the Iraq war. At the time of the earlier poll, a stunning 42% wanted Congress to consider impeachment.
A day after Zogby issued its latest job approval poll and found that Bush’s approval rating in their poll fell below 40%, and that Bush was losing significant support in the Midwest and West as well as amongst Republicans, Raw Story is reporting that Zogby will be issuing the results of an updated poll this afternoon before the late Friday news dump. And what does this updated poll supposedly show?
Support for Congress to consider impeachment if Bush lied is now up to 51%.
And before you dismiss this talk because the GOP controls all the government machinery, take a look at what Zogby says about Bush’s troubles amongst his base now, and then think about the possibility that Democrats could reclaim one or both houses of Congress next year, making those concerns about GOP control irrelevant.
The 39% job performance is the lowest we have registered so far for Mr. Bush. Behind those numbers are some troubling trends for his party. He is rated positively by only 43% of men, 48% of gun owners, 44% of NASCAR fans, 46% among those who attend a place of worship weekly, 39% of Catholics, 48% of Protestants -- including just 59% among self-described 'Born Again' Protestants, 41% of armed services households, 47% of married voters, and just 72% of conservatives (his lowest yet). These are all groups that have provided strong support for him in the past. He gets only 76% of Republicans (again his lowest in our polls), with just 11% of Democrats and 28% of Independents. His support among Hispanic voters is down to 21% and only 6% among African Americans.
My only caution with regards to the impeachment findings is the wording of Zogby’s question is sloppy. The poll indicates that 51% support congressional consideration of impeachment if Bush “did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq.” But other polls are showing that more than half of those polled now think that Bush lied to lead us into the war, which is a far more general feeling than whether or not Bush lied about his reasons for going to war. It would be better in my mind if Zogby simply asked respondents if they would support congressional consideration of impeachment if Bush lied to get us into the war.
Still, 51% is a significant number when talking about considering impeachment, and is a far bigger number than was registered when Clinton was in the midst of his worst days over his stupidity with Lewinsky. And for anyone who says 51% means nothing, I would remind you that an alleged 51% was considered a “mandate” by the wingers just a year ago.