Congress Goes Belly Up

Poll Watch

The latest Gallup Poll has Bush's job approval rating at 37 percent. Objectively, that's still dismal. But relatively speaking, it's up substantially in the last month or so. As Gallup reports, by comparison "[i]n early November, 31% of Americans approved of Bush as president -- just two points off his term-low rating of 29%."

Why the upward movement? I asked that question in my Live Online yesterday, and readers suggested all sorts of possible reasons, including the relative improvements in Iraq, the Middle East peace conference, the reduced threat of war with Iran, and that he actually looks good compared to the Republican candidates that could succeed him.

But maybe I jumped the gun. Gallup might have it wrong.

The latest New York Times/CBS News poll finds Bush's numbers down two points from September and October.

Adam Nagourney and Megan Thee write in the New York Times: "President Bush's approval rating is at 28 percent, one point above the lowest of his tenure."

They also note: "A vast majority think the country is heading in the wrong direction. More people cite the Iraq war as the most important issue facing the country than cite any other matter, and though 38 percent say the dispatch of extra troops to Iraq this year is working, a majority continue to say that undertaking the war was a mistake."

And the new Washington Post/ABC News poll finds Bush stalled at 33 percent, exactly where he's been for six months.

Torture Tapes Watch

Mark Mazzetti writes in the New York Times: "Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, acknowledged on Wednesday that the C.I.A. had failed to keep members of Congress fully informed that the agency had videotaped the interrogations of suspected operatives of Al Qaeda and destroyed the tapes three years later.

"General Hayden's comments struck a different tone from a message he sent to C.I.A. employees last Thursday, when he said that Congressional leaders had been informed about the tapes and of the 'agency's intention to dispose of the material.' . . .

"After a hearing that lasted nearly four hours, Representative Silvestre P. Reyes of Texas, the committee's chairman, called parts of General Hayden's testimony 'stunning' and said lawmakers were just at the beginning of what would probably be a 'long-term investigation.' . . .

"Congressional investigators are particularly interested in advice the C.I.A. received from White House lawyers over a two-year period, from 2003 to 2005. Government officials have said that White House aides advised the C.I.A. to preserve the tapes, but the exact guidance they gave remains murky.

"Some in Congress are curious to know why, if [Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., the head of the agency's clandestine branch] had really ignored White House advice not to destroy the tapes, he was apparently never reprimanded."