Poll: Most Back Congress In Iraq Showdown

Bill McLaughlin, Nanette Johnston and Eric Naposki

Most Americans back Democrats in Congress in their showdown with President Bush over Iraq, according to a CBS News/New York Times poll.

Sixty-four percent of those surveyed favor setting a timetable for a U.S. troop pullout by 2008. The Senate passed legislation Thursday that would require the withdrawal of U.S. forces to begin by Oct. 1.

Most also believe Congress, not the president, should have the final word on setting troop levels in Iraq. But they do not want Democrats to cut off funding for the war if the president is unwilling to agree on a timetable.

SHOULD U.S. SET TIMETABLE FOR IRAQ WITHDRAWAL IN 2008?

Now
Yes
64%
No
32%

4/9-12/2007
Yes
57%
No
38%

If President Bush delivers his promised veto of the bill, most Americans think Democrats should go ahead and allow funding for the war, even without a schedule for a troop withdrawal in place. Fifty-six percent say Democrats should continue funding the war without a timetable.

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Click here for complete results of this poll.

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But given the choice, Americans would like to see the U.S. set a timetable to begin withdrawing troops sometime in 2008. This view is even more prevalent than it was two weeks ago.

The president continues to receive dismal ratings for his handling of the war. His 24 percent approval is one of his lowest ratings ever on this question.

IF BUSH VETOES FUNDING-TIMETABLE BILL, DEMOCRATS SHOULD…

Fund war anyway
56%
Withhold funding until Bush sets timetable
36%

Mr. Bush's overall approval rating is 32 percent, similar to what it was two weeks ago.

On another troubling issue for the administration, the poll finds support for embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has slipped further.

After Gonzales' testimony before a Senate committee about the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, slightly more Americans think he should resign than thought so before. Forty-four percent say he should quit, while 28 percent say he should not.

However, views on Gonzales are very partisan — and many Americans are not following the story closely.

For detailed information on how CBS News conducts public opinion surveys, click here.

This poll was conducted among a random sample of 1052 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone April 20-24, 2007. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups is higher.

[waynabq]

Posted by didntinhale at 08:09 PM : Apr 27, 2007

Are you R-E-T-A-R-D-E-D? You're definitely the poster child for the Bush Administration.

[katg21]

Question. What happens after we pull out our troops?

[kansas1946]

Well, fortunately the ball is in Bush's court. The American people support a time table, and want the troops funded until then. That is the bill that the house AND senate sent Bush. Let him veto it. He is doing it in direct opposition to his bosses, us. His legacy is just looking better and better. Hell even SMU in his own home state doesn't want his crummy library. :o)

[clemenhagen1]

And therein lies the rub. The public backs the Congress on "non-binding" benchmarks, to which the president himself agreed, but they fall prey to the argument they do not want to "not support the troops." Classic. The president holds the troops hostage in his petty game, and while the public knows Congress is right they will not ultimately win because all of us are leery of doing anything in the name of the troops. The troops are dying in vain; this war has nothing to do with our national security. Yet they will continue to die in vain because King Petulance must maintain them in Iraq until he leaves office in order to save face. Immoral. Criminal. And extremely sad that the American public does not have the independent thought to see it for what it is...Bush hiding behind the troops as he has done for his entire time in office.

[tibu987]

Withdrawal is not "surrender", it is not "cut and run", as the President and his cohorts would like us to believe.
It is realizing a mistake has been made and it is time to stop your losses.
Those pols who condone the war do not have sons and daughters or relatives in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is not their billions of dollars that are being spent, not their families being slaughtered, not their homes being demolished.
What a bunch of phony creeps they are.
How ashamed of themselves they should be.
There is a time to stand up for the truth, honor, and Nation. And that time is now by pulling all our troops out of Iraq before more young people, women and children are killed.
What a disgrace we have foisted on the world. Enough is enough. Out now.

[knyghtwolf]

The BIGGEST problem we face now is convincing the chimp in charge that it works for US, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND. It is so full of force manure that he REEKS of it on a global scale. WE WRITE THE RULES, IT IS SUPPOSED TO FOLLOW THOSE RULES, END OF STORY.

[inventagod2]

The USA is a dictatorship, resistance is futile.

[jebby_one]

haaaahaaaa ... another one of those cbs/nyt polls?

like always, this one is backed by the credibility of the New York times and CBS. haaaa haaaaa haaaaa. What a scream.

[neoconrcrazy]

Thank god for American democracy and the possibility to box in a madman in the White House.

Who would have thought one of own would betray us with lies.

May we be spared another Bushit. Amen

[gunnerv1]

I'm 60 years old and I have never been a poll of any kind, I think that the pollsters ask the same pool of people these questions (very lazy).