"The poll is consistent with other recent surveys that show growing concern about the war. .....
"Bush's approval-disapproval rating was 47%-49%, a tick worse than it was two weeks earlier but in the same range it has been for a year."
Here are the poll results.
About Those 400 Terror Suspects
Dan Eggen and Julie Tate write in The Washington Post: "On Thursday, President Bush stepped to a lectern at the Ohio State Highway Patrol Academy in Columbus to urge renewal of the USA Patriot Act and to boast of the government's success in prosecuting terrorists.
"Flanked by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, Bush said that 'federal terrorism investigations have resulted in charges against more than 400 suspects, and more than half of those charged have been convicted.'
"Those statistics have been used repeatedly by Bush and other administration officials, including Gonzales and his predecessor, John D. Ashcroft, to characterize the government's efforts against terrorism.
"But the numbers are misleading at best.
"An analysis of the Justice Department's list of terrorism prosecutions by The Washington Post shows that 39 people -- not 200 -- have been convicted of crimes related to terrorism or national security.
"Most of the others were convicted of relatively minor crimes such as making false statements and violating immigration law -- and had nothing to do with terrorism, the analysis shows. Overall, the median sentence was just 11 months."
Gitmo Watch
Paul Richter writes in the Los Angeles Times: "Some Bush administration officials have come to believe the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should be closed because reports of abuse have created a public relations problem, a senior Republican lawmaker said Sunday."
Richter writes that on Fox News Sunday, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, "said the administration was divided on the issue, with some officials taking the view that if the facility was shut down, 'you shorten the [news] stories, you shorten the heated debate, and you get it off the table and you move on.'."
It's not hard to guess which side of the divide Vice President Cheney is on.
