The Silent Majority, The Talking Majority

Over at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, Herbert Klein believes that "the so-called silent majority supports the President" in his efforts to wiretap Americans without benefit of a FISA warrant.

Where is this silent majority? Not answering public opinion polls, apparently.

The old news is that Bush's approval rating has returned to 36%. Also old news is the now-discredited claim, made by the Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes, that public opinion shows "support" for the NSA's warrant-free spying program.

The new news comes from Zogby's polling. 52% of Americans surveyed responded with I agree when asked this question:

If President Bush wiretapped American citizens without the approval of a judge, do you agree or disagree that Congress should consider holding him accountable through impeachment?

Granted, that's a particularly biased way of phrasing that question, and considering impeachment is not impeaching.

Still, almost 1 in 3 (29%) of surveyed Republicans (76% of surveyed Democrats, 50% of surveyed Independents) and a majority of surveyed Americans answered in the affirmative.

Not happy numbers for a President on the eve of his State of the Union address.