As much as Zogby is off sometimes, he is also often right. But I was just shocked at
the obvious pro-GOP bias in his question, about filibustering Shrub's nominees. As it turns out, Zogbywise, a majority of likely voters are siding with the GOP, against the filibustering of the worst of Shrub's nominees. Something like 56% are against filibustering, 34% support it. Given the biased question, I think these results are worthless.
The question reads:
Q. "The Constitution provides the president with the power to nominate justices to the federal bench while the U.S. Senate has the power to "advise and consent." In that role, the Senate has always confirmed judicial nominees by a simple majority of votes - a requirement upheld by a Supreme Court ruling. During the Bush presidency, Democrats used, on six occasions, the threat of a filibuster to block confirmation of some of Bush's judicial nominees. The Constitution expressly provides that supermajority voting requirements are to be used for treaties and constitutional amendments. Knowing this, which of the following statements best describes your opinion?"
The results, not very surprising:
A majority of voters in the survey also reject the filibuster strategy employed by Senate Democrats against some of President Bush's judicial nominees. This is consistent with polling results under President Clinton when voters rejected Republican efforts to block judicial nominees. Fifty-three percent of Blue State and 59% of Red State voters felt the Democratic filibuster of judicial nominees was wrong while 35% of Blue State and 32% of Red State voters feel a minority of Senators are right to use whatever means to necessary to block the nominees.
And:
Fifty-eight percent of union members, 65% of current military members, 58% of veterans and 68% of gun owners all feel that the Democrat's filibuster of judicial nominees in the U.S. Senate is wrong and that a simple majority should be used for the confirmation process. Only 25% of current military members, 36% of veterans, and 24% of gun owners think the Democrat's use of the filibuster to block judicial nominees is okay. There is little difference of opinion among church-goers and non-church-goers on this question. Daily church-goers think the use of the filibuster is wrong by a 66% to 25% margin. Weekly church-goers oppose the use of the filibuster by a 58% to 29% margin. Those who never attend church also agree that the Democrat's filibuster is wrong by a 61% to 34% margin. Investors in the stock market and in 401-K retirement plans and non-investors, by margins of 57% to 33% and 46% to 43% respectively, feel the use of the filibuster to block judicial nominees is wrong. Fifty-nine percent of NASCAR, high school sports and little league sports fans feel the Democrat's use of the filibuster to block judicial nominees was wrong compared to 31% who thought the use of such tactics were okay. Non-NASCAR fans also opposed the Democrat's filibuster by a 53% to 35% margin.
Given the biased question, the results are pretty meaningless, in my own, very biased and up-beat opinon. :)
The question is a part of this poll, which also shows Bush about 5% ahead of Kerry, nationally, which seems to me like a real outlier, as of Feb 12-15.