topaz | from the about-fucking-time department:

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politics

from the about-fucking-time department:

New Zogby Poll Shows Majority of Americans Support Impeaching Bush for Wiretapping

(now what about Congress...?)

thanks

agaran for the pointer.

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Careful. For one thing, the Zogby poll shows a slim majority, within their margin of error. For another, impeachment takes 2/3 of the Senate, and the kind of support from the grass roots needed for that just isn't there.

And because this is a Zogby poll, it behooves us to find out what the exact question was:

"If President Bush wiretapped American citizens without the approval of a judge, do you agree or disagree that Congress should consider holding him accountable through impeachment."

Most Americans (again, slim majority) believe that the president only authorized wiretaps against terrorists, not "American citizens". I grant that American citizens can be terrorists, but that's not how the question was phrased.

(And, of course, the odds of the president being impeached by the current membership of the House are slim to none. Yet another reason for targeting vulnerable Republican legislators in the coming election.)

Also, support for "consider holding him accountable through impeachment" does not necessarily equal "support impeaching".

Had I been asked this question, I would have answered that I agree.
I believe Congress *should* consider holding him accountable through
impeachment, and then, having considered such an action, should
reject it.

I posted before I read ckd's comment, but yes, my point exactly.

I believe that your way of answering this kind of question is highly atypical :)

The poll has a margin of error of +/-2.9%. The spread between yes and no on the question is 9 points (52% to 43%). That's well beyond the margin of error.

The bracket outlined by the margin is that support for the question is between 49% to 55%, so it is slightly possible that support is merely a plurality rather than a majority, within the stated margin, but I think we have reasonable confidence that it's actually a majority.

The phrasing of this is important.

I think you'd get different results if you asked "Should Congress impeach President Bush because he wiretapped American citizens without a warrant?"

(For what it's worth, I think he should be impeached and removed from office over this issue, but I don't delude myself in thinking that a mostly Republcian Congress, or a public that doesn't really have a good grasp on the whole story, would agree with me.)

Do you think most Americans realize that impeachment is the trial and not a guilty verdict?

probably not. which is sad. i don't even know if they realize that one chamber does the impeaching (bringing of charges) and the other does the trying and possibly convicting.

Most people probably do not realize the distinction.

To clarify, I support impeachment and removal from office.

i wonder what would happen if they asked, "If Abramoff, who raised more than $100,000 for Bush in the last campaign, promised big time donors face time with the President and delivered on those promises during the convention, should the president be impeached?" (http://tinyurl.com/9dl3t) cause to me, it seems like a Bad Thing that the president was willing to be pimped by a crooked lobbyist.

of course, i've begun to wonder what exactly it's going to take. a blowjob on the white house lawn?

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