The New York Times

January 27, 2006 Friday

Correction Appended

Late Edition - Final

SECTION: Section A; Column 1; National Desk; Pg. 1

LENGTH: 1734 words

HEADLINE: New Poll Finds Mixed Support For Wiretaps

BYLINE: By ADAM NAGOURNEY and JANET ELDER; Marjorie Connelly, Marina Stefan and

Megan Thee contributed reporting for this article.

BODY:

Americans are willing to tolerate eavesdropping without warrants to fight

terrorism, but are concerned that the aggressive antiterrorism programs

championed by the Bush administration are encroaching on civil liberties,

according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

In a sign that public opinion about the trade-offs between national

security and individual rights is nuanced and remains highly unresolved,

responses to questions about the administration's eavesdropping program varied

significantly depending on how the questions were worded, underlining the

importance of the effort by the White House this week to define the issue on its

terms.

The poll, conducted as President Bush defended his surveillance program in

the face of criticism from Democrats and some Republicans that it is illegal,

found that Americans were willing to give the administration some latitude for

its surveillance program if they believed it was intended to protect them.

Fifty-three percent of the respondents said they supported eavesdropping without

warrants ''in order to reduce the threat of terrorism.''

The results suggest that Americans' view of the program depends in large

part on whether they perceive it as a bulwark in the fight against terrorism, as

Mr. Bush has sought to cast it, or as an unnecessary and unwarranted

infringement on civil liberties, as critics have said.

In one striking finding, respondents overwhelmingly supported e-mail and

telephone monitoring directed at ''Americans that the government is suspicious

of;'' they overwhelmingly opposed the same kind of surveillance if it was aimed

at ''ordinary Americans.''

Mr. Bush, at a White House press conference yesterday, twice used the

phrase ''terrorist surveillance program'' to describe an operation in which the

administration has eavesdropped on telephone calls and other communications like

e-mail that it says could involve operatives of Al Qaeda overseas talking to

Americans. Critics say the administration could conduct such surveillance while

still getting prior court approval, as spelled out in a 1978 law intended to

guard against governmental abuses.

The findings came in a poll conducted as Mr. Bush prepares to deliver his

fifth State of the Union address on Tuesday. It found that Mr. Bush will face a

nation that has grown sour on Washington and skeptical that he will be able to

achieve significant progress in health care, the economy, the Iraq war and the

cost of prescription drugs for older patients before he leaves office in three

years.

The poll also signaled concern for Republicans as they prepare to defend

their control of the House and the Senate in midterm elections this November.

Investigations into Congressional corruption are taking a toll as the elections

approach: 61 percent of Americans now hold an unfavorable view of Congress, the

highest in 10 years.

This finding holds particular peril for Republicans as the party that has

been in charge. More than half of the respondents said they believed that most

members of Congress would exchange votes for money or favors.

Republicans were seen as more likely to be unduly influenced by lobbyists.

And the Republican Party is now viewed unfavorably by 51 percent of the nation,

its worst rating since Mr. Bush took office. By contrast, 53 percent said they

held a favorable view of Democrats.

The telephone poll was conducted with 1,229 adults, starting Friday and

ending Wednesday. Its margin of sampling error was plus or minus three

percentage points.

The poll found that Americans were to a large extent perplexed as they

weighed conflicting forces: the need presented by Mr. Bush to take extraordinary

action to fight terrorism, and a historical aversion to an overly intrusive

government.

The poll found that 53 percent of Americans approved of Mr. Bush's

authorizing eavesdropping without prior court approval ''in order to reduce the

threat of terrorism''; 46 percent disapproved. When the question was asked

stripped of any mention of terrorism, 46 percent of those respondents approved,

and 50 percent said they disapproved.

At the same time, 64 percent said they were very or somewhat concerned

about losing civil liberties as a result of antiterrorism measures put in place

by Mr. Bush since the attacks of Sept. 11. And respondents were more likely to

be concerned that the government would enact strong antiterrorism laws that

excessively restrict civil liberties than they were that the government would

fail to enact antiterrorism laws.

The poll was conducted just as the White House commenced an elaborate

campaign to defend the surveillance program, and thus may have been too early to

offer a full measure of that campaign's effectiveness. There were no measurable

changes in the poll findings from one day to the next.

The findings, and follow-up interviews with some participants, clearly

suggest that Mr. Bush has an opportunity to make the dispute over the program

play to his political advantage. He has been pointing to the threat of another

terrorist attack to justify the eavesdropping program and is trying, for the

third election in a row, to suggest that he and his party are more aggressive

about protecting the nation than are Democrats.

''Say they're targeting someone in Al Qaeda outside the country, and that

person then calls someone in the United States about a plot or something really

bad: I don't have a problem with that phone being monitored,'' Debbie Viebranz,

51, a Republican from Ohio, said in a follow-up interview. ''But I don't think

they should do it for no reason.''

Donnis Wells, 69, a Republican from Florence, Miss., said: ''I don't think

civil liberties are the more important thing we need to handle right now. I

think we need to protect our people.''

Still, interviews reflected clear apprehension about the program. ''If

there is a warrant and done by the courts, I would agree,'' said Robert Ray, 54,

an independent from Kentucky. ''But they're trying to do it without using the

courts. I just don't trust them.''

In the poll, 70 percent of respondents said they would not be willing to

support governmental monitoring of the communications of ''ordinary Americans'';

68 percent said they would be willing to support such monitoring of ''Americans

the government is suspicious of.''

Beyond surveillance, the poll found that Americans hold unfavorable views

of the president and the Republican-controlled Congress as Mr. Bush prepares to

give his State of the Union speech. Americans, while declaring themselves

generally optimistic about the next three years under Mr. Bush, do not expect

him to accomplish very much in that time.

When Mr. Bush leaves office, respondents said, the deficit will be larger

than it is today, the elderly will be being paying more for prescription drugs,

and the economy and the health care system will be the same as today, or worse.

Mr. Bush is viewed favorably by 42 percent of the respondents,

statistically the same as in the last Times/CBS News poll, in early December, a

lackluster rating that could hamper his ability to rally public opinion behind

his agenda and push legislation through a divided Congress. Beyond that, nearly

two-thirds of the country thinks the nation is on the wrong track, a level that

has historically proved to be a matter of concern for a party in power.

A majority said they were dissatisfied with the way Mr. Bush was managing

the economy and the war in Iraq. Public approval for his handling of the

campaign against terrorism, once one of his greatest political strengths, has

rebounded somewhat from last fall, but remains well belowwhere it was for the

first two years after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Most strikingly, the poll found abundant evidence of public unhappiness

with Congress. While it is risky to draw conclusions about Congressional

elections from national measurements of discontent -- for example, more than

half of all Americans said they were satisfied with the job their member of

Congress was doing -- the findings underscored the tough electoral environment

that has led some analysts to predict significant Republican losses this fall.

The corruption investigations appear to account for a lot of the

dissatisfaction. Nearly 80 percent of respondents said that the kind of

influence-peddling revelations that have emerged in the investigation of the

lobbyist Jack Abramoff reflected the ''way things work in Congress'' and were

not isolated incidents. More than 50 percent said most members of Congress '

'accept bribes or gifts that affect their votes.''

''It seems like the integrity of Congress members in the last few years has

just gone to pot,'' said Donald Pertuis, 54, an independent voter from Hot

Springs, Ark. Mr. Pertuis added: ''In the last 20 years, greed has accelerated.

People expect more, I suppose, and want to work less.''

How the Poll Was Conducted

The latest New York Times/CBS News poll is based on telephone interviews

conducted Jan. 20 through Jan. 25 with 1,229 adults throughout the United

States.

The sample of telephone exchanges called was randomly selected by a

computer from a complete list of more than 42,000 active residential exchanges

across the country. Within each exchange, random digits were added to form a

complete telephone number, thus permitting access to listed and unlisted numbers

alike.

Within each household, one adult was designated by a random procedure to be

the respondent for the survey.

The results have been weighted to take account of household size and number

of telephone lines into the residence and to adjust for variation in the sample

relating to geographic region, sex, race, marital status, age and education.

In theory, in 19 cases out of 20, overall results based on such samples

will differ by no more than three percentage points in either direction from

what would have been obtained by seeking out all American adults. For smaller

subgroups, the margin of sampling error is larger.

In addition to sampling error, the practical difficulties of conducting any

survey of public opinion may introduce other sources of error into the poll.

Variation in the wording and order of questions, for example, may lead to

somewhat different results.

Dr. Michael R. Kagay of Princeton, N. J., assisted The Times in its polling

analysis.

Complete questions and results are available at nytimes.com/polls.

URL: http://www.nytimes.com

CORRECTION-DATE: January 28, 2006

CORRECTION:

A front-page article yesterday describing the results of the most recent New

York Times/CBS News poll referred imprecisely to Americans' favorable opinions

of President Bush. The 42 percent of respondents who said they viewed him

favorably were referring specifically to how he handles his job. On another

question -- about how he is liked over all -- the result was 37 percent

favorable.

A front-page article yesterday describing the results of the most recent New

York Times/CBS News poll referred imprecisely to Americans' favorable opinions

of President Bush. The 42 percent of respondents who said they viewed him

favorably were referring specifically to how he handles his job. On another

question -- about how he is liked over all -- the result was 37 percent

favorable.

GRAPHIC: Photo: President Bush at his news conference yesterday. The latest poll

shows that public opinion on Mr. Bush's surveillance program is still

unresolved. (Photo by David Scull for The New York Times)(pg. A21)ChartIn order

to reduce the threat of terrorism, would you be willing to allow government

agencies to monitor the telephone calls and e-mail of . . .. . . ordinary

Americans on a regular basis?: WILLING 28%. . . Americans that the government is

suspicious of?: WILLING 68%The complete polling sample was split

each half was asked one question.(Source by The New York Times/CBS News

Poll)(pg. A1)ChartPublic Sentiment on EavesdroppingHow concerned are you about

losing some of your civil liberties as a result of the measures enacted by the

Bush Administration to fight terrorism?Very: 34%Not very: 17Not at all: 18No

opinion: 1Which concerns you more -- that the government will fail to enact

strong anti-terrorism laws or that the government will enact new anti-terrorism

laws which will excessively restrict the average person's civil liberties?Fail

to enact: 40%Enact laws that restrict civil liberties: 48Neither: 2No opinion:

8Both: 2After 9/11, President Bush authorized government wiretaps on some phone

calls in the U.S. without getting court warrants, saying this was necessary to

reduce the threat of terrorism. Do you approve or disapprove of this?Approve:

53Disapprove: 46No opinion: 1After 9/11, George W. Bush authorized government

wiretaps on some phone calls in the U.S. without getting court warrants. Do you

approve or disapprove of this?Approve: 46Disapprove: 50No opinion: 3Public

Expectations of the Second TermBy the end of George W. Bush's second term in

office . . .the economy will be better: 22Worse: 28About the same: 49No opinion:

1the health care system in this country will be better: 9Worse: 40About the

same: 50No opinion: 1seniors will pay more for their prescription drugs than

they do today: 51Less: 11Same: 35No opinion: 4the federal budget deficit will be

bigger than it is now: 70Smaller: 6Same: 22No opinion: 3the office of the

presidency will be more powerful: 21Less powerful: 22About the same: 55No

opinion: 3most abortions will be legal: 47Against the law: 41No opinion:

12Public Perceptions of CongressDo you approve or disapprove of the way Congress

is handling its job?Approve: 29Disapprove: 61No opinion: 11Do you think that

recent reports that lobbyists may have bribed members of Congress are isolated

incidents or is this the way things work in Congress?Isolated incidents: 16Way

things work: 77No opinion: 7Who is more likely to accept bribes or gifts that

affect their votes -- Republicans or Democrats in Congress?Republicans:

28Democrats: 13Both equal: 36Neither: 3No opinion: 20Totals may not add to 100

because of rounding.Based on nationwide telephone interviews conducted by The

New York Times and CBS News January 20-25 with 1,229 adults.(pg. A21)

LOAD-DATE: January 26, 2006