Poll: Impeachment talk gains steam after Libby move
By Herald wire services
Sunday, July 8, 2007 - Updated: 07:44 AM EST

A bad week for President Bush may foreshadow a dismal political
season, as the president=B9s poll numbers plummet, Republicans abandon
his Iraq policy and he faces a nascent censure and impeachment
movement.
A new survey by the American Research Group found that only 31
percent of respondents approve of the president=B9s commutation of
former White House aide I. Lewis =B3Scooter=B2 Libby=B9s prison sentence.
The study by the private New Hampshire-based polling company
canvassed 1,100 Republicans, Democrats and Independents from July
3-5, finding 64 percent disapproved of the commutation and 5 percent
were undecided.
The president commuted the sentence Monday, saying the 2 years
imposed last month on Libby, who was found guilty of perjury and
obstructing justice in a case linked to the Iraq war, was =B3excessive.=

The commutation has sparked a firestorm on Capitol Hill.
Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.), who has drafted a resolution to
censure Bush, said the president=B9s =B3intervention is an unconscionable
abuse of authority by George W. Bush, and Congress must step forward
and express the disgust that Americans rightfully feel toward this
contemptible decision.=B2
Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Judiciary
Committee, has scheduled hearings Wednesday on the commutation. The
hearings will include pardons made by Clinton, former President Bush
and possibly other past presidents.
Those hearings may be the least of the White House=B9s problems.
The ARG poll found a remarkable 45 percent in favor of the U.S.
House of Representatives beginning impeachment proceedings against
Bush.
In Los Angeles, a storefront =B3impeachment headquarters=B2
emblazoned with American flags opened July 4. Activists who gathered
to open the center accuse the Bush administration of condoning
torture, spying on Americans and misleading citizens about the war in
Iraq. They also were angry at the president=B9s decision to commute
Libby=B9s sentence.
=B3Isn=B9t it ironic that Paris Hilton will spend more days in jail
than Libby?=B2 said Byron De Lear, a Green Party activist.
The White House declined to comment on the impeachment poll, the
latest bad news for a president who has seen his public opinion
standings dragged to record lows by the unpopular war in Iraq. A
Newsweek poll puts Bush=B9s approval rating at 26 percent.
In the past two weeks, three Republicans - Sens. Richard Lugar of
Indiana, George Voinovich of Ohio and Pete Domenici of New Mexico -
have announced they can no longer support Bush=B9s Iraq war strategy
and have called on the president to start reducing the military=B9s
role there.
=B3I have carefully studied the Iraq situation and believe we
cannot continue asking our troops to sacrifice indefinitely while the
Iraqi government is not making measurable progress to move its
country forward,=B2 Domenici told reporters. Domenici has embraced a
bill that would put U.S. troops on track to leave by the end of March
2008.
A spokesman for the White House, Tony Fratto, said that position
amounts to the same one sought by the Democrats, =B2which is, in fact,
a precipitous withdrawal.=B2
=B3We think that=B9s absolutely the wrong way to go,=B2 Fratto said
Friday. =B3It would be dangerous.=B2
Four other GOP senators have signed on to Salazar=B9s legislation:
Domenici, Susan Collins of Maine, John Sununu of New Hampshire and
Lamar Alexander of Tennessee.

http://news.bostonherald.com/politics/view.bg?articleid=3D1010134

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get real. like jesus would ever own a gun or vote republican.