58 percent of Americans disagree with Bush-Cheney impeachment

One-third of Americans say they believe President Bush should be impeached, according to a new survey � a figure that mirrors the number of people who say the United States cannot win a military victory in Iraq.

While 32 percent want Bush ousted, the figure rose to 35 percent for Cheney, poll results indicated.

In addition, 30 percent of those surveyed said they would be more likely to vote for a congressional candidate who promised to work for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney.

Results of the impeachment survey generally match figures in an earlier Rasmussen poll showing the number of Americans who don't think the U.S. can be successful in Iraq. In that poll, 33 percent said U.S. success in Iraq was impossible.

However, most Americans disagree with Bush-Cheney impeachment. Rasmussen found that 58 percent of those surveyed did not think the president should be removed from office.

Rasmussen said Democrats, by a 47 percent to 28 percent margin, said they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who supports impeachment. By comparison, 80 percent of Republicans would not vote for such a candidate.

The last president to be impeached was Bill Clinton. The House returned two counts of impeachment against Clinton � one for perjury and one for obstruction of justice � on Dec. 19, 1998, for providing false testimony to a grand jury regarding his affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

Clinton was only the second chief executive in U.S. history to be impeached, after Andrew Johnson in 1868, and the only popularly elected president to have been so charged.

The Senate, however, did not convict Clinton, allowing him to remain in office.