Zogby Poll: Americans Support Impeaching Bush for Wiretapping

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@ 2006-01-14 11:49:00

Zogby Poll: Americans Support Impeaching Bush for Wiretapping

By Bob Fertik Created 2006-01-13 23:34

For Immediate Release: January 16, 2006

New Zogby Poll Shows Majority of Americans Support Impeaching Bush for

Wiretapping

By a margin of 52% to 43%, Americans want Congress to impeach President Bush

if he wiretapped American citizens without a judge's approval, according to a

new poll commissioned by AfterDowningStreet.org, a grassroots coalition that

supports a Congressional investigation of President Bush's decision to invade

Iraq in 2003.

The poll was conducted by Zogby International, the highly-regarded

non-partisan polling company. The poll interviewed 1,216 U.S. adults from

January 9-12.

The poll found that 52% agreed with the statement:

" 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. "

43% disagreed, and 6% said they didn't know or declined to answer. The poll

has a +/- 2.9% margin of error.

" The American people are not buying Bush's outrageous claim that he has the

power to wiretap American citizens without a warrant. Americans believe

terrorism can be fought without turning our own government into Big Brother, "

said AfterDowningStreet.org co-founder Bob Fertik.

" Next weeks' Senate hearings on White House wiretapping could be as dramatic

as the Watergate hearings in 1973. A majority of Americans have already decided

Bush committed an impeachable offense, yet we have only seen the tip of the

iceberg. If Bush ordered warrantless wiretapping long before the terrorist

attack on 9/11 - which was first reported in Truthout on Friday - then Americans

will realize that George Bush came into office determined to shred the

Constitution and take away our rights, " Fertik said.

Impeachment Supported by Majorities of Many Groups

Responses to the Zogby poll varied by political party affiliation: 76% of

Democrats favored impeachment, compared to 50% of Independents and 29% of

Republicans.

Responses also varied by age, sex, race, and religion. 70% of those 18-29

favored impeachment, 51% of those 31-49, 50% of those 50-64, and 42% of those

over 65. 56% of women favored impeachment, compared to 49% of men. Among African

Americans, 90% favored impeachment, compared to 67% of Hispanics, and 46% of

whites. Majorities of Catholics, Jews, Muslims, and Others favored impeachment,

while 49% of Protestants and 46% of Born Again Christians did so.

Majorities favored impeachment in the East (53%), West (56%), and Central

states (58%), but not the South (43%). In large cities, 58% support impeachment;

in small cities, 56%; in suburbs, 49%; in rural areas, 46%.

Support for Impeachment Has Surged Since June

The new Zogby poll shows a dramatic transformation in support for Bush's

impeachment since late June. (This is only the third poll that has asked

Americans about their support for impeaching Bush in 2005, despite his

record-low approval ratings.) The Zogby poll conducted June 27-29 of 905 likely

voters found that 42% agreed and 50% disagreed with the identical statement

asked about in this recent polling. This question was virtually identical to one

used in early October by Ipsos Public Affairs, which found that 50% agreed and

44% disagreed that Congress should consider impeaching Bush if he did not tell

the truth about his reasons for war.

 

Zogby

10/29-11/2 Ipsos

10/8-9 Zogby (LV)

6/27-29 Net Change

Jun-Nov Support Impeachment 53%

50%

42%

+11%

Oppose Impeachment 42%

44%

50%

-8%

Impeachment Margin +11%

+6%

-8%

+19%

After the June poll, pollster John Zogby told the Washington Post that support

for impeachment " was much higher than I expected. " At the time, impeachment

supporters trailed opponents by 8%. Now supporters outnumber opponents by 11%, a

remarkable shift of 19%.

If impeachment support continues to grow by 3% each month, it will reach 60% in

January, 65% in March, and 70% in April. Support for Clinton Impeachment Was

Much Lower

In August and September of 1998, 16 major polls asked about impeaching

President Clinton (http://democrats.com/clinton-impeachment-polls). Only 36%

supported hearings to consider impeachment, and only 26% supported actual

impeachment and removal. Even so, the impeachment debate dominated the news for

months, and the Republican Congress impeached Clinton despite overwhelming

public opposition.

Impeachment Support is Closely Related to Belief that Bush Lied about Iraq

The Zogby and Ipsos polls asked about support for impeachment if Bush lied

about the reasons for war, rather than asking simply about support for

impeachment. Pollsters predict that asking simply about impeachment without any

context would produce a large number of " I don't know " responses. However, this

may understate those who support Bush's impeachment for other reasons, such as

his actions before and immediately after Hurricane Katrina, his negligence prior

to 9-11, his use of torture, and the CIA outing scandal.

Other polls show a majority of U.S. adults believe that Bush did in fact lie

about the reasons for war. A June 23-26 ABC/Washington Post poll found 52% of

Americans believe the Bush administration " deliberately misled the public before

the war, " and 57% say the Bush administration " intentionally exaggerated its

evidence that pre-war Iraq possessed nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. "

Support for the war has dropped significantly since June, which suggests that

the percentage of Americans who believe Bush lied about the war has increased.

Passion for Impeachment is Major Unreported Story

The strong support for impeachment found in this poll is especially surprising

because the views of impeachment supporters are entirely absent from the

broadcast and print media, and can only be found on the Internet and in street

protests. The lack of coverage of impeachment support is due in part to the fact

that not a single Democrat in Congress has called for impeachment, despite

considerable grassroots activism by groups like Democrats.com

(http://democrats.com/impeach).

The passion of impeachment supporters is directly responsible for the new poll

commissioned by After Downing Street. After the Zogby poll in June, activists

led by Democrats.com urged all of the major polling organizations to include an

impeachment question in their upcoming polls. But none of the polling

organizations were willing to do so for free, so on September 30,

AfterDowningStreet.org posted a request for donations to fund paid polls

(http://afterdowningstreet.org/polling). People responded with small donations

(on average $27) which quickly added up to over $10,000. After Downing Street

has spent a portion of that money on the Ipsos Poll and the new Zogby Poll.

Footnotes:

1. AfterDowningStreet.org is a rapidly growing coalition of veterans' groups,

peace groups, and political activist groups that was created on May 26, 2005,

following the publication of the Downing Street Memo in London's Sunday Times on

May 1. The coalition is urging Congress to begin a formal investigation into

whether President Bush committed impeachable offenses in connection with the

Iraq war.

2. The Ipsos Public Affairs poll and the new Zogby poll results cited above

refer to surveys of U.S. adults. The June Zogby results are from a survey of

likely voters. The new Zogby poll produced results for both adults and likely

voters (see footnote 3).

3. Here are the complete data tables from all three polls.

November Zogby: Adults, and Likely Voters.

October Ipsos: Adults, and definitions of regions.

June Zogby: Likely Voters.

 

http://www.democrats.com/bush-impeachment-poll-2

 

 

 

 

 

 

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