Home >> World Most Americans disapprove of Bush's commutation of ex-aide: poll + - 08:18, July 07, 2007

Related News Bush spares Cheney's ex-chief of staff from serving jail term Comment Tell A Friend Print Format Save Article Most Americans and nearly half of all Republicans disapprove of U.S. President George W. Bush's commutation of the prison sentence of a former White House aide, according to a CNN poll out on Friday.



Fully 64 percent of all Americans said they disapproved of Bush 's July 2 decision to spare Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former chief- of-staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, from serving 30 months in prison, the survey found.



Broken down by party affiliation, 76 percent of Democrats, 47 percent of Republicans, and 80 percent of Independents said they disapproved.



Meanwhile, 84 percent of the respondents said they oppose a full presidential pardon for Libby, which Bush did not rule out.

Broken down by party, 82 percent of Democrats, 70 percent of Republicans, and 97 percent of Independents oppose a pardon.



The poll, conducted on July 3-5, interviewed 1,100 adults and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.



Libby was convicted March 6 of lying to investigators probing the 2003 leak of CIA official Valerie Plame's identity. He was sentenced to 30 months in jail June 5.



But Bush commuted his jail term July 2 and didn't rule out a pardon in the future.



Source: Xinhua

