WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A CNN poll released Wednesday may continue the anxiety for the GOP, showing Democrats with a 14-point advantage over Republicans among registered voters asked their preferences in this year's midterm elections.
The poll, conducted for CNN by Opinion Research Corp., found that 52 percent of respondents who were registered voters said they were leaning toward voting for a Democrat, while 38 percent said they were leaning toward a Republican.
Ten percent said they didn't know how they would vote or candidate not from the two major parties.
Among all Americans, the poll found 50 percent leaning toward Democrats, 37 leaning toward the Republicans and 3 percent intending to vote for non-majority candidates. Ten percent had no opinion
The poll, based on telephone interviews with 1,021 adult Americans between Friday and Sunday, had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. (View the poll results -- PDF)
Republicans are suffering politically, the poll suggested, because nearly half of the Americans interviewed said they think the country is on the wrong track.
The Democrats have a 14-point advantage over the Republicans among registered voters, when asked their preferences in this year's elections? First I'll say that is a pretty hefty advantage to have with six months left to go in the election. For the past five months, the Bush administration has been slammed with constant scandals, charges of incompetence, and cronyism. And these problems have not let up, but rather, they have increased, with high energy prices, and nuclear tensions with Iran leading the way. If these problems continue to be at the forefront of the media stories, then you can expect the Democrats will continue to maintain their 14-point advantage, or perhaps even expand their advantage, over that of the Republicans.
This is why the Republicans in Congress are sweating bullets. They've pretty much aligned themselves to the Bush administration for the past five years, without providing any congressional oversight against the Bush White House, or developing their own independence from President Bush's policies. Now that Bush's poll numbers have dropped to around 31 percent, the Republicans are worried that the American public will take their anger out against the Bush administration by voting out the Republicans in Congress. It is only now that you're starting to see Republican congressmen balking or even opposing the Bush administration's political policies, when they feel it may politically help them. Consider this little story from The Nation, via Yahoo News:
The Nation -- General Michael Hayden is getting a warm reception from the Senate Intelligence Committee, who gets first dibs on his nomination as
CIA director. But elsewhere on the Hill prominent Republicans are grumbling, led by House Intelligence Chairman Peter Hoekstra and Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert--pretty much the last person you'd expect to bash the Bush Administration. "I don't think a military guy should be head of CIA, frankly," Hastert sais yesterday. From sub-only Roll Call:
Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) has come out against the nomination of Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden to head the CIA, calling the ousting of former Rep. Porter Goss (news, bio, voting record) (R-Fla.) from the agency's top post "a power grab" by John Negroponte, the director of national intelligence.
Hastert's opposition to Hayden is not based on any personal reservations about the nominee. Rather, Hastert is concerned that installing a top-ranking military official at the "CIA would give too much influence over the U.S. intelligence community to the
Pentagon."
You may think that this is an important story, but it really isn't. First, in order to become the next CIA director, General Michael Hayden must be confirmed by the Senate. House Speaker Dennis Hastert and House Intelligence Chairman Peter Hoekstra have no responsibilities regarding Hayden's confirmation--they are both serving in the House of Representatives. So they can flap their mouths all they wish regarding General Hayden--it is not going to hurt them politically. But by speaking out against Hayden, both Hastert and Hoekstra can show their constituents back home that they are distancing themselves away from the Bush administration, and hopefully get re-elected in November. However, when legislation comes up that may affect their big-monied corporate and rich elite political doners, you can bet the Republicans will never bite the hand that feeds them. Consider this little Yahoo News story:
WASHINGTON - A bill awarding tax relief to investors and 15 million taxpayers facing the alternative minimum tax passed the House on Wednesday, giving
President Bush and his GOP allies on Capitol Hill a long-sought election year victory.
The bill providing tax cuts worth $70 billion over five years passed by a 244-185 vote. The Senate was expected to clear the bill for Bush's signature Thursday.
The legislation provides a two-year extension of the reduced 15 percent tax rate for capital gains and dividends, currently set to expire at the end of 2008.
The debate divided starkly along partisan lines, with Republicans crediting the tax cuts, first enacted in 2003, with a surging economy, millions of new jobs and booming tax revenues. Democrats countered that the deficit-financed tax cuts are tilted in favor of wealthy investors and that the economic benefits are not as great as advertised.
"Our pro-growth policies have helped the economy create more than 5.2 million jobs since August of 2003," Bush said in a statement. "By extending key capital gains and dividends tax relief, the House has taken an important step to continue to help hardworking Americans and to keep our economy strong and growing."
"Our tax relief sparked this economic growth," said House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. "And by extending key provisions of that tax relief, today's legislation adds just another spark to the already booming economy."
So really, this Republican distancing themselves away from the Bush administration is all political CYA--at least until the November elections are over. But is it too late for the Republicans to distance themselves away from the Bush White House? I can't say. This midterm election is going to be nasty, with both political parties attacking each other through negative campaign ads, more scandals exploding, Republicans suppressing the Democratic votes through more dirty tricks, Diebold computer glitches taking place, and who knows what else. The Republicans are down in the polls. Expect the worst slime to come out of the Republican Party as they will do anything to maintain their grip on power in Washington.
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