It’s the Corruption and Cronyism, Stupid

Article created by The Century Foundation

Iraq. The economy. Social Security. Katrina. The Bush administration has a
lot to answer for as we move into 2006. But with the indictment of Lewis “Scooter”
Libby on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice, the issue of corruption
and cronyism in Washington presents itself as a potentially decisive addition
to that mix. When the public is already looking for change (see “Change
Constituency Continues to Grow” from last week), intensified ethics
concerns may well be the straw the breaks the camel’s back and convinces the
public that the current administration, starting with its GOP supporters in
Congress, simply has to go.

Some data supporting this view are provided by two polls conducted right after
the Libby indictments. Here are the key findings.

1. The new
   Washington Post/ABC News poll measures Bush’s job approval as 39
   percent, with 58 percent disapproval, easily his worst rating yet in this
   poll, which tends to run high relatively high on Bush’s approval ratings.
   The poll also finds more than twice as many strongly disapproving (45
   percent) as strongly approving (22 percent) of Bush’s job performance. In
   addition, the poll finds 25 percent of Republican identifiers disapproving
   of Bush’s job performance, a 17-point jump since the beginning of this year.
   If this trend continues, the assumption that Bush can’t fall much below 40
   percent approval will be called into question, since that assumption is based
   on the claim that Bush’s support among Republicans will not fall below the
   80–85 percent level.

2. The same poll finds almost two-thirds of the public (64 percent) giving
   Bush a negative rating (“only fair” or “poor”) for his
   handling of ethics in government. That figure includes nearly one-third of
   Republicans and a whopping 71 percent of independents. Moreover, almost half
   of the public (46 percent) says the overall level of ethics and honesty in
   the federal government has declined during Bush’s presidency, compared
   to just 15 percent who say it has improved.

3. On the Libby indictment itself, 69 percent call it a serious charge and
   only 26 percent term it a technical or minor charge. And 55 percent believe
   that the Libby indictment indicates “broader problems with ethical wrongdoing
   in the Bush administration,” rather than that it is an “isolated
   incident” (41 percent).

4. In the new
   CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, 56 percent now say the phrase “can manage
   the government effectively” does not apply to Bush, compared to
   43 percent who think it does. That reverses the July result on the same question,
   where, by 53 percent to 45 percent, the public thought that phrase did apply
   to Bush.

5. By 55 percent to 42 percent, the public now pronounces Bush’s presidency
   so far to have been a failure. And they are not optimistic about the future:
   by 55 percent to 41 percent, they expect the last three years of Bush’s presidency
   also to be a failure.

6. On the Libby indictment specifically, 76 percent believe Libby either did
   something illegal (45 percent) or unethical (31 percent). On the other hand,
   in contrast to the ABC News result, 55 percent describe the Libby charges
   as stemming from an isolated incident, rather than indicating “low ethical
   standards” for the Bush administration (38 percent). This difference
   could stem from the somewhat tougher language of this question (“low
   ethical standards” versus “broader problems with ethical wrongdoing”)
   and the fact that the Gallup poll does not mention that the leaked name was
   of an undercover CIA employee, while the ABC News poll does specify
   this detail.

These data indicate that ethical problems are likely to aggravate an already
dicey situation for the GOP as they head toward the 2006 elections. Just how
difficult that situation was even before the indictments were handed down is
clearly outlined in a recent
Gallup report based on pre-indictments data. That report rightly notes that
Democratic leads in the generic congressional ballot, especially this far ahead
of the election, should be treated with great caution. But other more consequential
indicators do suggest a difficult time for the GOP in 2006:

Besides the generic ballot, there are some stronger indications that the
Republican majority in Congress may be in trouble. Chiefly, Americans’ overall
approval rating of Congress is, according to Gallup’s Oct. 13–16 poll,
just 29%. That compares with 50% approval for Congress in October 2002 and
44% in October 1998. The last time congressional approval fell below 30% was
in 1994—the year the previously entrenched Democratic majority was ousted
by a Republican tidal wave.

Also, the percentage of registered voters who believe that most members
of Congress deserve to be re-elected has fallen below 50% for the first time
since 1994. Today, just 46% believe most members of Congress deserve another
term, while 44% disagree. While not as low as the 38% found just before the
1994 elections, the 46% today is substantially lower than the 57%–58%
recorded before the past two midterm elections….

The impact Bush will have on the congressional elections is unclear, but
in principle, his low approval ratings cannot help the Republican Party. If
his ratings continue to dip into the low 40s, as they have for the past two
months, he could be a greater liability to Republican candidates than was
Bill Clinton in 1994.

This finding is underscored by a separate question asking voters what impact
a candidate’s relationship with Bush will have on their vote for that candidate.
By a 55% to 39% margin, a majority of voters say they would be more likely
to vote for a congressional candidate who opposes Bush than for a candidate
who supports him. Only 6% say it would make no difference.

This is notably more negative than what Gallup found in 1994 and 1998 in
reaction to Clinton. In neither case did a majority of voters say they would
be more likely to vote for a candidate who opposed Clinton.

A follow-up question, asking voters how strongly they feel about a candidate’s
support for Bush, reveals an even more dramatic difference in Bush’s potential
impact on the election. Close to half of all voters today (47%) feel very
strongly about voting for a candidate who opposes Bush. Even in 1994, when
Clinton’s approval rating was similar to Bush’s current rating, a much lower
percentage (36%) expressed this level of animosity toward Clinton.

Again, all these data were collected before the Libby indictments came down.
It seems fair to say that 2006 is shaping up to be very rough year for
the GOP.