Americans Get It, They Are Still Not Amused By Libby Commutation

Earlier I shared some fresh poll numbers showing that 54% of Americans want the Congress to impeach Dick Cheney.

That American Research Group poll contains some other startling numbers. We will try to share them in bite sized chunks over the next couple of days.

We all know the White House's commutation of Scooter Libby was immediately unpopular. As RJ Eskow elaborates, since then the White House and their lackeys among the mainstream pundits class have been desperately trying to turn American opinion on the topic. So far the efforts of the White House and the mainstream media have not met with much success.

Question:
Do you approve or disapprove of President George W. Bush commuting the 30-month prison sentence of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby while leaving intact Mr. Libby's conviction for perjury and obstruction of justice in the CIA leak case?

Among All Adults 31% approve of the commutation, 64% disapprove and only 5% are undecided. The numbers among likely voters are 26%, 69%, and 5%. Among Democrats (38% of the sample) 13% approve, 76% disapprove and 11% are undecided. Among Republicans (29%)the numbers are 50%,47% and 3% and among Independents (33%) the numbers are 19%, 80% and 1%.

The poll is based on 1,100 completed telephone interviews among a random sample of adults nationwide July 3-5, 2007. The theoretical margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points, 95% of the time. Of the total sample, 933 interviews were completed among registered voters.

Now you might argue that the disapproval numbers include a bunch of folks who really think the President should pardon Libby.

Not so fast. The same poll shows that 84% of those polled oppose a full pardon of Scooter "the skater" Libby. That number includes 70% of Republicans, 82% of Democrats and a very surprising 97% of independents.

It is beginning to look like, despite the best efforts of Joe Klein, David Brooks, Richard Cohen and the rest of the professional pundit class, George Bush has had his Rubicon moment.

By the way the Eskow post is about the best discussion of the pundit class's really bizarre response to the commutation I have read so far.