Should President Bush be censured by the Senate over the issue of warrantless wiretapping? According to one recent poll, the issue breaks along partisan lines, though not rigidly.

In a mid-March PSRA/Newsweek poll, 42 percent of respondents supported the censure of Bush, while 50 percent did not. 

Resident Fellow Karlyn H. Bowman

Twenty percent of Republicans, 42 percent of independents and 60 percent of Democrats supported censure. When asked about the motivations of the censure movement’s primary spokesman, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) and other Democrats, 53 percent of respondents said they were supporting censure more for partisan political advantage. Thirty-three percent said they were supporting it because it was right.

As for going a step further to impeachment of the president, 26 percent said they wanted Congress to impeach the president. Five percent of Republicans said so, as did 23 percent of independents and 49 percent of Democrats.

Feeling Proud About the War. Forty-six percent of respondents told CBS/New York Times interviewers that they were proud about what the United States was doing in the war with Iraq. Forty-eight percent said they were not. In September 2005, those responses were 43 percent and 49 percent, respectively.

CBS/New York Times pollsters also reported on the attitudes of “Iraq service families”--that is, cases in which the respondent or someone in his or her immediate family has served in Iraq, a description that fit 17 percent of those surveyed.

Fifty-six percent of this group were proud of U.S. involvement. The families also were more likely than the general population (60 percent versus 51 percent) to believe that the U.S. was likely to succeed there.

Demographically, nearly half of the “Iraq service families” in the poll were from the South (46 percent). One in five was African American. Twenty-six percent were from households earning less than $30,000 a year. Twenty-seven percent came from households in the $30,000 to $50,000 range, 29 percent from the $50,000 to $100,000 range and 12 percent from $100,000-and-up range.

War Protests. In a March 10-12 Gallup/CNN/USA Today poll, 13 percent of respondents said they had publicly opposed the war by participating in a demonstration or writing a letter to a public official.

A slightly smaller number--11 percent--said they had publicly supported the war by doing these things.

The Draft. One-quarter of those surveyed in a March 9-12 CBS News/New York Times poll favored reinstating the draft. Thirty-four percent of Republicans and 16 percent of Democrats were in favor.

Twenty percent favored reinstating the draft to provide soldiers for the Iraq conflict (26 percent of Republicans, 12 percent of Democrats).

Americans in Mourning. In a March 10-12 Gallup/CNN/USA Today poll, 17 percent
of those surveyed said they had attended a funeral or memorial service for Americans who died in Iraq.

Foreign Investment. In a March 8-12 Pew poll, 53 percent said that foreign-company investment in the U.S. was good for the U.S. and 36 percent said it was bad. Fifty-four percent of Democrats and 52 percent of Republicans said it was good.

Sixty-four percent said free trade was good for the U.S. and 27 percent said it was bad. Fifty-three percent said foreign investors owning U.S. companies was bad (33 percent said it was good). On outsourcing, 71 percent said it was bad and 20 percent said it was good.

South Dakota’s Abortion Ban. In a new Pew poll, 21 percent of respondents said they were following the news about the South Dakota abortion ban very closely. Twenty-six percent weren’t following it closely at all. By comparison, 43 percent were closely following news about Iraq, and 41 percent were closely following the Dubai ports deal.

Women (25 percent) were more likely than men (16 percent) to be watching South Dakota’s action very closely. According to Pew, both anti-abortion and pro-abortion rights Americans were equally uninterested in the story, though on both sides, those who feel strongly about the issue paid closer attention.

Fifty-eight percent of Pew respondents opposed a national law like South Dakota’s, while 34 percent were in favor. Sixty-six percent of moderate-to-liberal Republicans were opposed. Sixty-five percent of conservative Republicans were in favor. Pew found greater intensity in the anti-abortion camp.

March Madness. Twenty-one percent of those surveyed in a March 8-14 Harris poll said they had at some point participated in an office pool for the NCAA basketball tournament. Thirteen percent indicated that they would be participating this year. There was no information on how many bet on George Mason University’s Patriots.

Nicest Politicians. In mid-March, Fox News and Opinion Dynamics asked people to forget politics and the way they usually voted and simply pick the nicest person. Twenty-nine percent picked George W. Bush, 23 percent chose Sen. John McCain, 18 percent selected Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and 16 percent named Al Gore.

Karlyn F. Bowman is a resident fellow at AEI.