Return of the 'I-Word'

The Zogby poll asked about it in July, and found that more than four in 10 Americans said that if Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq, Congress should consider holding him accountable through impeachment.

That poll got almost no media attention. Since then, the anti-Bush Web site afterdowningstreet.org has commissioned several other reliable pollsters to keep asking. The most recent poll, by Rasmussen Reports , asked flat-out: "Should President Bush be impeached and removed from office?" And 32 percent of Americans said yes.

Washington Post pollster Richard Morin said in a Live Online discussion yesterday: "We do not ask about impeachment because it is not a serious option or a topic of considered discussion -- witness the fact that no member of congressional Democratic leadership or any of the serious Democratic presidential candidates in '08 are calling for Bush's impeachment. When it is or they are, we will ask about it in our polls."

Morin complained that he and other pollsters have been the "target of a campaign organized by a Democratic Web site demanding that we ask a question about impeaching Bush in our polls." And Morin got angry at all the people posting to his Live Online yesterday asking him why he won't ask about impeachment.

But there's no reason to get mad.

And there's nothing wrong with asking the question.

Live Online

I'm Live Online today at 1 p.m. ET. I look forward to responding to your questions and comments . And I won't get mad at any of them, I promise.

Poll Watch

Morin was primarily online yesterday to discuss the latest Washington Post poll. As Dan Balz and Morin wrote in yesterday's Post: "President Bush's approval rating has surged in recent weeks, reversing what had been an extended period of decline. . . .

"Bush's overall approval rating rose to 47 percent, from 39 percent in early November, with 52 percent saying they disapprove of how he is handling his job."

By contrast, Susan Page wrote in USA Today: "Bush's job-approval rating was 41%, a bit higher than his historic low of 37% last month but down a point or two from earlier in December."

The Post poll was conducted Thursday through Sunday; the Gallup Poll was taken Friday through Sunday.

Spying Updates

Carol D. Leonnig and Dafna Linzer write in The Washington Post: "A federal judge has resigned from the court that oversees government surveillance in intelligence cases in protest of President Bush's secret authorization of a domestic spying program, according to two sources."