As the New York Times pretty much conceded in a sidebar to its front page report , public opposition to Bush and his policies is largely a factor of how liberal pollsters words their questions. If the question is straightforward, Bush is quite popular. But lard the question with qualifiers and code words, and opposition supposedly grows. That's the only way to explain why Bush enjoys 60 percent approval while only 42 percent think he's in charge of his own administration. Now that they've admitted he' s plenty smart in his own way, they're having trouble coming to terms with what that might mean about their own claim to intellectual and moral supremacy.
Liberals are friendly, yes, but only if they can do a bit a hating in the process.
Naturally, then, they look for other targets. But it turns out every key figure in the administration is even more immune than Bush from liberal wrath. Our friends thought they'd found a vulnerable figure in John Ashcroft, but all he does is politely agree with whatever it is they want from him. Then he quietly goes on to act according to the steely professional dictates he's brought to the Justice Department, and they can't touch him. In any case, it's the liberals' own fault for building up the likes of Powell, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, and O'Neill as impressive figures whose attributes Bush could in no way match.