The Russ Fuss

"Democrats are reluctant to sign on to Feingold's censure measure because they have this odd perception that they're catching up with the GOP on the national security front, and they don't want to appear 'weak on terror,' which is the lie the GOP is using to repel Democrats from supporting Feingold. Sure, Americans may trust Democrats more on national security (by ONE percentage point, well within the margin of error) but they still trust generic Republicans more, by a five point margin. But abandon that myopic vision, Democrats, because that isn't going to win back the Congress in 2006.

"Here are the REAL numbers the Democrats should contemplate as they twiddle their thumbs on censure. 70% of Americans think Democrats are doing only a 'fair or poor' job. That is a WORSE job approval than in the days before the 2004 election. How much worse? Almost ten points worse. Sure, we've caught up in which party has stronger leaders, but as of mid-January, we were still six points behind the Republicans. And while the Washington Post still peddles misinformation about how the majority of people 'support wiretapping,' the reality is that a full 52% support impeaching the President 'if President wiretapped American citizens without the approval of a judge.' "

The question , in a survey by the liberal group AfterDowningStreet.org., actually says: "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." (Emphasis added.)

HuffPoster Eric Boehlert says Bush really is down in the polls:

"The silence from the Republican noise machine has been deafening this week in the wake of the updated CBS News poll that indicates president Bush is still stuck with an embarrassing 34 percent job approval rating; unchanged since last month. You'll recall that on Feb. 28, when CBS released polling data that showed Bush for the first time dropping to 34 percent, right-wingers, especially online, went bonkers, screaming how the always-liberal CBS had rigged the survey because its pollsters had contacted too many Democrats which meant the results were bogus, which meant Bush wasn't really unpopular.

"Off on a debunk fest and anointing themselves polling experts, Ankle Biting Pundits derided the survey as the 'latest MSM garbage poll,' Fox News' Brit Hume went on the air to talk down the CBS poll, while the always excitable partisans at NewsBusters.org announced the Feb. 28 poll was 'slanted.' (All, btw, have remained mum in the wake of the follow-up CBS poll, which confirmed the Feb. 28 findings.) It was the usual right-wing tactic, in which bad news for Bush was immediately painted as bogus, phony and purposefully misleading.

"Two things. The hysterical cries of bias looked increasingly silly when a conveyor belt of new polls from the likes of AP, Zogby, Harris, and CNN, published in the wake of the CBS survey, all confirmed the same findings; Bush has become widely unpopular among Americans. Secondly, the new CBS poll out this week specifically addresses the issue of response ratio between Democrats and Republicans. And guess what? Even after soliciting opinions from far more Republicans, Bush's approval rating remains stuck at 34 percent."

Speaking of that, another "new low" for Bush in the WSJ/NBC poll , even though, as I grumbled the other day, the comparison is not to other recent "new low" surveys but to the last Journal poll.

If you were Bush and being criticized for putting incompetent hacks in high office, would you try to give the top federal highway job to a guy who was fired as head of the massively screwed up Big Dig in Boston? John Kerry is having a field day with this one.

I quoted the other day from George Clooney's alleged blog posting on Arianna Huffington's site. Now the actor is crying foul :

"Clooney didn't backpedal from his political views but said they had been compiled from his interviews with CNN's Larry King and Britain's Guardian newspaper. Huffington acknowledged reprinting the comments but said she had permission from a publicist. "He says he gave permission to use quotes. 'What she most certainly did not get my permission to do is to combine only my answers in a blog that misleads the reader into thinking that I wrote this piece,' Clooney said in a statement. 'These are not my writings -- they are answers to questions and there is a huge difference.' "

Jack Shafer has a long list of journalists who could face jail time if the administration gets serious about prosecuting for receipt of classified information.