Ignoring ABC's own poll, Stephanopoulos claimed Congress "is even more unpopular" than Bush

On the July 27 edition of ABC's Good Morning America, chief Washington correspondent George Stephanopoulos reported that the Bush administration is calling "just politics" the decision by the Senate Judiciary Committee to subpoena White House senior adviser Karl Rove over the administration's firings of U.S. attorneys. He added, "And they feel that's their best political ground right now because the Congress is even more unpopular than the president right now." In fact, the most recent poll conducted by Stephanopoulos' own network -- a July 18-21 Washington Post-ABC News poll -- showed President Bush with a lower approval rating than Congress. The poll found that Bush has a 33-percent approval rating and a 65-percent disapproval rating, and that Congress has ratings of 37 percent approval and 60 percent disapproval.

Moreover, when respondents were polled on congressional Democrats and Republicans separately, congressional Republicans received a 34-percent approval and a 64-percent disapproval rating, while congressional Democrats received an approval rating of 46 percent and a disapproval rating of 51 percent.

From the July 27 edition of ABC's Good Morning America:

CHRIS CUOMO (co-host): So let's look at it just from the political perspective. If Karl Rove, the adviser, is in the same boat, being subpoenaed to testify before Congress on the issue of the U.S. attorney firings and you have the [White House] chief of staff [Joshua Bolten] also being summoned, how worried is the administration that its legacy gets clouded by these legalities?

STEPHANOPOULOS: Right now, they're saying it's just politics. They're saying that the Congress is simply pursuing all these investigations and not doing the business of the people. And they feel that's their best political ground right now because the Congress is even more unpopular than the president right now. So they're going to continue to resist. They are not backing down on this executive privilege fight. They are not going to send the White House chief of staff and Karl Rove up to testify.

—K.H.