Ashcroft approval rising - Poll also finds Bush numbers remain consistently favorable

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Ashcroft approval rising Poll also finds Bush numbers remain consistently favorable

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.

Ashcroft approval rising

-- Ain't Gonna Happen (Not Here Not@ever.com), January 19, 2001


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