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Amid Libby indictment, Bush polls at new low

BY CRAIG GORDON | WASHINGTON BUREAU

November 4, 2005

WASHINGTON - Former White House aide I. Lewis Libby pleaded not guilty to perjury charges yesterday, while new polls showed how his indictment in the CIA leak case helped push President George W. Bush's standing with the American public to its lowest point ever.

For the first time, in one survey, fewer than half of all Americans believe Bush is honest and trustworthy, or that he is a strong leader - a severe blow to his political strength.

Libby, 55, made his first court appearance on five counts of lying to federal investigators and a grand jury over how he learned the identity of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame. The former vice presidential chief of staff, who resigned the day the indictment was announced, hobbled to the microphone without his crutches for a foot injury to tell U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton, "With respect, your honor, I plead not guilty."

Libby also introduced a new defense team many lawyers said was built to take the case to trial. Such proceedings could force Vice President Dick Cheney to testify and make life uncomfortable for several high-profile reporters who reluctantly testified before a grand jury.

In pleading not guilty, Libby "has declared that he intends to fight the charges ... [and] wants to clear his good name," said defense lawyer Theodore Wells, who secured acquittals in two previous cases involving federal officials, former agriculture secretary Mike Espy and labor secretary Raymond Donovan.

Wells' co-counsel, William Jeffress, also said First Amendment issues could complicate the case, a comment legal experts said may signal a defense strategy to pressure reporters into revealing so much about their interactions with the White House that they would try to avoid testifying at all.

Robert Bennett, the lawyer for The New York Times' Judith Miller, said he's not concerned. "Judge Walton is not going to let them move too far afield," he said in an interview.

Bush's political problems don't end with Libby. Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald has said he is still investigating Bush political adviser Karl Rove.

Fitzgerald was checking key parts of Rove's story - that he simply forgot to tell the grand jury about a phone call in which he discussed Plame - as late as Oct. 25, three days before Libby was indicted. A prosecutor spoke to former White House press aide Adam Levine about a conversation Levine had with Rove shortly after Rove hung up from Time reporter Matt Cooper, Levine's lawyer Daniel French said yesterday.

In the Rove-Levine conversation, Cooper was not mentioned, French said. Even if that tended to support Rove's version of an easily forgotten phone call, "I don't think that could be all they were looking at" to check Rove's account, French said of prosecutors.

Meanwhile, some senior Republicans are pressing Bush to fire Rove even if he is not indicted, but White House insiders insist no such move is in the offing. Nearly 60 percent in the ABC News/Washington Post poll say Rove should resign.

After the worst week of his presidency - the 2,000-casualty mark in Iraq, the withdrawal of a Supreme Court nominee and Libby's indictment - the new polls quantify just how deep Bush's trouble is.

The ABC/Post poll has Bush with a personal-low approval rating of 39 percent, meaning six in 10 disapprove of the job he's doing, numbers that mirror those faced by Bush's father before a recession caused him to lose the 1992 election.

Just 40 percent call Bush honest and trustworthy, and fewer than half call him a strong leader, this poll found. On the Iraq war, 55 percent say Bush intentionally misled the public, and 60 percent say the war wasn't worth fighting, both new highs.

An AP-Ipsos poll had similar findings: a personal low approval rating of 37 percent. The intensity of the disapproval is the strongest to date, with 42 percent saying they "strongly disapprove" of Bush's job performance, twice as many as the 20 percent who "strongly approve."