A public that has been talking to the back of President Bush's head since 2000—that survey after survey has shown is at odds with the president over everything from the war in Iraq to fuel efficiency standards for automobiles—may yet get its own revenge. A poll taken last week by American Research Group shows that a majority of that public thinks Vice-President Cheney and President Bush have abused the powers of their offices.
The poll, which queried 1,100 voters nationwide (39 percent of them were Democrats, 35 percent Republicans and 26 percent Independents) is worth looking at in detail. Sixty-four percent of those interviewed said the president has abused his powers; 34 percent said he was ripe for impeachment. Seventy percent said the vice-president had abused the powers of his office; 43 percent, including 21 percent of the Republicans polled, said he should be impeached.
The 34 percent who said the president should be impeached included 18 percent of the Republicans polled. Another 21 percent of voters polled, including 12 percent of the Republicans, said his abuses were impeachable but that he should not be impeached. That means that over half those polled—55 percent, including 30 percent of Republicans interviewed—believe the president has committed impeachable offenses, whether or not they think he should be impeached. (Yet another 6 percent of Republicans said he had abused his powers, but not seriously enough to warrant impeachment.)
It's less surprising that 75 percent of Democrats polled thought the president had committed impeachable offenses, and 50 percent thought he should be impeached. Independents, too, have a low opinion of the president's conduct in office, with 71 percent of those polled saying he has abused his powers, 60 percent saying he has committed impeachable offenses, and 34 percent saying he should be impeached.
The numbers could create a volatile climate for the White House if sitting politicians decide to act on the message, though a spokesman for U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told the Advocate a rumor that Pelosi would start to move a motion filed by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) to impeach Cheney if she got 10,000 handwritten letters supporting it was not true.
Why would people believe that the president and vice-president had committed impeachment-worthy offenses, but not want them impeached? A statement reportedly made as 36 towns in Vermont were passing impeachment resolutions last winter gives a clue. When an impeachment measure was discussed in Calais, resident Chuck Storrow said Bush's presidency was a "disaster" but added, "If we're going to have an impeachment every time something happens at the national level that we don't agree with, we'll be doing it all the time." Others apparently oppose impeachment because they believe the polls are the place to deliver such verdicts, and Bush and Cheney will only be in the White House for one more year.
Some, including U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Washington)—an outspoken critic of Bush's "fictional" ways of dealing with the Iraq war and global warming—have said impeachment will interfere with other goals, such as ending the war. Late last winter, as a movement for state legislatures to get the impeachment ball rolling seemed to be gaining momentum, Inslee told the Seattle Times, "We're trying to get [Republicans in Congress] to vote against the war. They're coming around. You don't hear them singing the virtues of George Bush like they used to. But nothing will turn this into a partisan lockdown faster than impeachment."
