Poll: Majority Approves Of Holder Being Held In Contempt Of Congress

A new CNN poll suggests that the Administration may want to rethink the way its responding to the Fast & Furious investigation:

 Washington (CNN) Most Americans approve of the decision by the House of Representatives to censure Attorney General Eric Holder, but a new national poll also indicates that a majority of the public thinks that House Republicans are investigating Holder to gain political advantage.

According to a CNN/ORC International survey released Monday morning, 53% of people questioned say they approve of the House vote a week and a half ago to hold the attorney general in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over documents related to a controversial program called Operation Fast and Furious, with one in three saying they disapprove of the move and 13% unsure.

Nearly three-quarters of Republicans approve of the move, as do a majority of independent voters, while a plurality of Democrats oppose the vote.

(…)

Nearly seven in 10 say the Obama administration should answer all questions, with 27% agreeing with the move to invoke executive privilege.

“Public opinion is identical to what it was when the shoe was on the other foot – in 2007, when House Democrats were investigating the dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys and the administration of Republican President George W. Bush was claiming executive privilege, Americans felt that the Republicans should answer all questions and that the Democrats were just trying to gain political advantage,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

According to the survey, roughly three in 10 Americans have an unfavorable view of Holder; only one in four have a positive view of him and 44% are unsure how they feel about the attorney general.

There are, of course, some danger signs for the GOP:

House Democrats say that the GOP is really just trying to gain political advantage, and 61% of the public appears to buy that argument as well, with 34% saying that House Republicans had real ethical concerns about the way the program was handled.

As noted about, though, that’s the same conclusion Americans had reached about Democrats in 2007, but they still felt the Administration should be more forthcoming.  This is unlikely to be a “decides the election” issue, but perhaps the Administration needs to rethink the politics of this situation.

FILED UNDER: Congress, US Politics, , , , , , , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. Commonist says:

    “A new CNN poll suggests that the Administration may want to rethink the way its responding to the Fast & Furious investigation:”

    Until the GOP gets over the fact that it can’t create impediments specifically against non-white people voting, Holder stays and the people scolding him can go to hell.

  2. al-Ameda says:

    House Democrats say that the GOP is really just trying to gain political advantage, and 61% of the public appears to buy that argument as well, with 34% saying that House Republicans had real ethical concerns about the way the program was handled.

    One thing we do know is this, where Darrell Issa is involved ethics are not involved.

  3. Captain Obvious says:

    Commonist = Communist. There, fixed that for you.

    I feel like my age is showing here. I remember when Outside the Beltway wasn’t a Hard Left website filled with lickspittle minions.

    Anyway, as long as I’m getting everything straight, Obama can ask for Photo ID to attend his many, many top 1% fundraisers but to require the same ID to vote that you need to drive a car, buy a cigarette or cash a check is Raaaaaacist.

    Good thing Obamacare is going to cover Waaaahmbulances.

    From the Marc Rich / Puerto Rican terrorists pardons, to working for the law firm that defended Gitmo detainees, to ending the prosecution of the Black Panther Philadelphia voter intimidation case, to pandering to whackadoo Latino groups like La Raza by suing states doing the job he refuses to do – that it is quite clear that Eric Holder is a divisive, prejudicial bigot and racist in his own right who puts his own corruption and subservience to his masters above anything resembling the law.

  4. Dazedandconfused says:

    So the primary driver of procedure in investigations into international drug cartels is to be public opinion polls?

    Could work, but it has to include questions like: “Is confidentiality necessary when investigators have undercover agents?”

    Just to be fair.

  5. Will says:

    Does anyone actually believe that the people polled by CNN understand much of anything about “Fast and Furious”?

  6. Commonist says:

    “Anyway, as long as I’m getting everything straight, Obama can ask for Photo ID to attend his many, many top 1% fundraisers but to require the same ID to vote that you need to drive a car, buy a cigarette or cash a check is Raaaaaacist.”

    The reason they ask for photo ID is to sort out the subhumans that could try to physically attack Barack Obama.

    Sort of the same reason they want to check if a person is mentally ill before they try to buy a gun – then again, so many NRA members are clinically paranoid that probably gets them riled up as well.

  7. Jeremy R says:

    @Will:

    Does anyone actually believe that the people polled by CNN understand much of anything about “Fast and Furious”?

    They don’t have too. CNN’s horribly worded poll took care of that:

    As you may know, on Thursday the U.S. House of Representatives voted to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over documents related to a program called Operation Fast and Furious. Based on what you have read or heard about this matter, do you approve or disapprove of the action taken by the U.S. House?

    The documents related to Operation Fast and Furious have been released. What’s in dispute are masses of internal DOJ documents Issa wants from after Feb. 2011, which he claims he needs to see how the DOJ responded internally to his inquiry.

  8. Jenos Idanian #13 says:

    @Jeremy R: The documents related to Operation Fast and Furious have been released. What’s in dispute are masses of internal DOJ documents Issa wants from after Feb. 2011, which he claims he needs to see how the DOJ responded internally to his inquiry.

    That’s right, now the House wants to know about the attempted coverup to the initial inquiries.

    If it helps, think of this like Fitzgerald continuing his investigation into the Plame non-affair after he discovered that Richard Armitage was the leaker. After all, Libby didn’t leak Plame’s name, so why was he charged with anything?

  9. An Interested Party says:

    I feel like my age is showing here. I remember when Outside the Beltway wasn’t a Hard Left website filled with lickspittle minions.

    Well you’re certainly free to click that little x button up in the right hand corner and go on over to Redstate or WND to find some real high quality froth and foaming at the mouth…

    From the Marc Rich / Puerto Rican terrorists pardons, to working for the law firm that defended Gitmo detainees, to ending the prosecution of the Black Panther Philadelphia voter intimidation case, to pandering to whackadoo Latino groups like La Raza by suing states doing the job he refuses to do – that it is quite clear that Eric Holder is a divisive, prejudicial bigot and racist in his own right who puts his own corruption and subservience to his masters above anything resembling the law.

    Oh look, you’ve really figured it all out! We all should know it’s about nothing more than sticking it to Whitey…

  10. Tillman says:

    Wow, sounds like most people had my exact same reaction. That’s heartening.

  11. Jenos Idanian #13 says:

    @An Interested Party: Yeah, because helping Marc Rich buy his pardon from Bill Clinton was really all about race.

    Holder’s corrupt. He’s an incredibly vile, corrupt man. Sometimes that corruption expresses itself in ways that might have racial overtones, sometimes not. He and his apologists just love playing the race card in his defense, even though it has no justification whatsoever. But just raising it is a dog-whistle to rally the Left to his defense.

  12. An Interested Party says:

    Holder’s corrupt. He’s an incredibly vile, corrupt man.

    The House is perfectly free to impeach him…

  13. Jenos Idanian #13 says:

    @An Interested Party: Repeat after me: House impeaches, the Senate tries. The Senate has enough Democratic ideologues and hyperpartisans who would make the trial (impeachment’s one thing they CAN’T just bury and ignore) that they’d still vote for acquittal even if Holder signed a confession in blood, in triplicate, notarized by FDR himself.