http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=21401
Ashcroft approval rising
Poll also finds Bush numbers remain consistently favorable
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By Jon Dougherty
© 2001 WorldNetDaily.com
As Senate Judiciary Committee hearings into Attorney General-nominee John
Ashcroft stretched into Day No. 3, a new poll says Americans are giving the
former U.S. senator higher approval ratings than before the hearings began
earlier this week.
On Tuesday, the committee opened hearings with contentious questioning from
veteran senators about Ashcroft's Christian opposition to abortion, his
pro-Second Amendment views and his opposition to one of President Clinton's
nominees to the federal bench.
According to Portrait of America, 43 percent of Americans now rate him
favorably, compared to 36 percent Jan. 9.
In Thursday's poll, POA analysts said 25 percent of Americans were "not
sure" how they viewed Ashcroft, compared to 35 percent last week.
Meanwhile, POA said, "President-elect George W. Bush's job-approval rating
remains virtually unchanged."
Bush, who will be inaugurated tomorrow in Washington, D.C., has an overall
favorable rating of 50 percent among Americans, who rated his performance as
president-elect as "excellent" or "good." Forty-six percent said his
performance has been "fair" or "poor."
"This rating has remained mostly unchanged since the U.S. Supreme Court
decision on the election," analysts said.
Rasmussen Research conducted this national Portrait of America telephone
survey of 750 likely voters on Jan. 15, 2001. The margin of sampling error
is plus or minus 4 percentage points with a 95 percent level of confidence.
The Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold three hearings with Ashcroft
this week.
The featured witness Thursday was Missouri Supreme Court Justice Ronnie
White, an African-American who was nominated to the federal bench by Clinton
in 1999. His nomination was opposed by Ashcroft, who called him
"pro-criminal" in his opposition to the imposition of the death penalty in
key high-profile cases in Missouri.
Democrats and certain advocacy groups, including Rev. Jesse Jackson --
embroiled in a new scandal of his own -- according to reports on Thursday,
have tried to label Ashcroft a racist, despite his support for 26 out of 28
minority nominees as a U.S. Senator.
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