censure polling

* nyt ed: "The allegations about Mr. Allen might have been classified as a sad tale of a White House official who fell victim to pressure or overwork, had it not been for the fact that the Bush administration had also nominated him for a seat on the United States Court of Appeals despite a résumé that's exceedingly thin on legal experience.... (If the current Congress had been called on to intervene in the case of Mr. Allen, it would probably have tried to legalize shoplifting.)"
superb snark.

* mystery pollster:

"The proposal by Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) to censure President Bush over the domestic eavesdropping program crossed an important threshold this morning. It was mentioned in all the major "mainstream" newspapers and at least two cable news networks (CNN and Fox). As such, it appears to meet the criteria that pollsters have offered as when considering whether to include a topic in national news media polls. So after more than six months of organized campaigns to get pollsters to ask questions about impeachment, we may now need to consider how pollsters will ask a question that, as far as I can tell, no one has yet asked about President Bush: Should he be "censured" by Congress? "

thnx mark.

* chris bowers has more:

"Whatever the debate on impeachment may be, there can be no question that censure has now reached both of these standards:

Gallup's threshold, that there needs to be "some discussion of that possibility by congressional leaders, and/or if commentators begin discussing it in the news media" has clearly been reached. Feingold's resolution was widely discussed by nearly every commentator in the national news media, and clearly there was discussion of the possibility be congressional leaders over the last two days as well. There is absolutely no way that Gallup's threshold to poll on impeachment has now not been reached by censure.

Morin's (regularly changing) threshold, that members of the congressional Democratic leadership or serious '08 candidates need to call for impeachment before they will poll on it, has also clearly been reached. Almost every single article on Feingold's resolution mentioned that Feingold might run for President in 2008. In fact, the major Republican talking point against the resolution was that Feingold was only doing it to improve his chances in 2008. Thus, both Republicans and Democrats agree that Morin's threshold for conducting a poll has been reached."

does anyone have any ideas about how we can move this forward? froomkin should be onto it. i'll email him. (done)

dan will be 'live online' at 1pm tomorrow (wed) - you can submit questions here or email him direct at (his surname)@washingtonpost.com