USA Today's team of Susan Page and Judy Keen write up the results of the latest polling from Gallup, which finds President Bush's approval spread at 41-56, unchanged since last week.

When Gallup asked in 1993 whether the first President Bush's tenure was a success or failure, 53% called it a success even though he had been defeated for re-election a year before. During Clinton's presidency, a majority never called his tenure a failure. Only once, after the health care debacle in 1994, did a plurality say it was a failure, by 50%-44%.

In January 1999, after he had been impeached by the House and was awaiting a Senate trial, 71% called Clinton's tenure a success.

But in August, by 51%-47%, those surveyed by USA TODAY called the current Bush presidency a failure. That proportion grew to 55%-42% in the poll over the weekend.

[...]

The USA TODAY poll found little optimism that Bush's turnaround strategy would succeed. By 55%-41%, those surveyed said the remaining three years of Bush's presidency would be a failure.

Other key pieces of data suggest that the American public decreasingly trust the administration.

Based on what you have heard or read, do you think Dick Cheney was aware of Lewis Libby’s actions in this matter [the Plame investigation], or was Cheney not aware?

Yes, aware -- 55
No, not aware -- 29

Do you think the Bush administration deliberately misled the American public about whether Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, or not?

Yes, deliberately misled -- 53
No, did not -- 45

As I noted in an earlier post, many Democrats will jump at the opportunity to shift the focus of the national political debate to the judiciary, as a majority of Americans believe that Roe should be upheld. But given the administration's lagging numbers on trustworthiness, not to mention the myriad of scandals facing the Republican Party across the country, it would be a real mistake by the Democrats to ease up their rhetoric on GOP ethical problems.