More Reassuring Polling

On Friday, I dejectedly noted an ABC News/Washington Post poll in which a majority of respondents felt that the Prez's illegal telephone data-mining operation was just the price we had to pay to fight terrorism. This was an early poll, and the original USA Today story may not yet have been widely known amongst the respondents. A comment to that post pointed out that this particular pollster has been taken to task for his methodology before, which offered further evidence that the pro-data mining position may not be as large as it seemed.

Well, that appears to be correct. A Newsweek poll released yesterday revealed that 53 percent of respondents believe the data mining "goes too far in invading people's privacy." And 57 percent answered that the White House has "gone too far in expanding presidential power." Today a second new poll was released, this time by USA Today/Gallup, that asserts 51 percent disapprove of the activity. Also among its findings were the facts that 55 percent believed the program definitely or probably broke the law, 57 percent would feel their privacy had been violated if they discovered the phone company had turned over their phone records (although only 35 percent would be very or somewhat concerned if they knew the government had those records), and 62 percent favor a Congressional investigation into the matter.

The Bushies keep pushing the envelope of what they can get away with, and before too long, they'll have gone too far. Of course, that's the kind of development that you only recognize after the fact.