WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, September 13) -- Americans think President Bill Clinton should be reprimanded by Congress for his tawdry, illicit affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, but they don't want him to either resign or be removed from office, according to the latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll.

Fifty-nine percent of people questioned -- or nearly six in 10 Americans -- think Congress should vote to censure Clinton, while only 35 percent think he should resign and only 30 percent favor the president's impeachment and removal from office, the poll found.

Clinton's job approval rating stands at 63 percent, virtually unchanged since the House of Representatives released Independent Counsel Ken Starr's explosive sex-and-perjury report via the Internet on Friday.

The new numbers are based on interviews with 902 adult Americans September 11-12. The poll contains a margin of error of +/- 4 percentage points for the questions asked of the entire sample, and +/- 6 percentage points for questions asked of likely voters. | Previous poll

White House officials launched a counterattack Saturday on Starr's report, saying the independent counsel fails to prove Clinton did anything worthy of impeachment.

Strategists hope that public support for the job Clinton has done as president will help them salvage his presidency, despite the humiliatingly graphic detail about the president's sex life in the Starr report.

The new poll also found that by wide margins, Americans believe Clinton lied under oath during the Paula Jones deposition and to Starr's grand jury.

Eighty-six percent of people think he lied in the Jones case and 78 percent think he lied to the Starr grand jury, according to the poll results. But in each case, the public is divided over whether that is an impeachable offense.

Here are the full results of the poll:

Do you approve or disapprove of the way Bill
Clinton is handing his job as president?

Clinton Approval Rating

Now          63%                      
Sept. 10     60                      
Sept. 1      62                     

 
 
 
Based on what you know at this point, do you
think that Bill Clinton should or should not
be impeached and removed from office?

Impeach Clinton and remove him from office

                Yes       No

Now             30%       64%
Sept. 10        31        63
August 21-23    29        67


 

Do you think Bill Clinton should or should
not resign now and turn the presidency over
to Al Gore?

Should Clinton resign?

                Yes       No

Now             35%       61%
Sept. 10        35        61

 
 

Regardless of whether or not you think
Clinton should be impeached, do you think
Congress should or should not vote to censure
Clinton -- that is, pass a formal resolution
expressing disapproval of his actions?

Should Congress censure Clinton?

                 Yes      No        

Now              59%      35%
Sept. 10         58       36

 
 
 
Clinton Should...

                Yes     No

Be censured     59%     35%
Resign          35      61
Be impeached    30      64 


Thinking about Bill Clinton as a person, do
you have a positive or negative opinion of
him?

Positive      36%
Negative      58

 

Do you think Bill Clinton is honest and
trustworthy enough to be president, or not?

                 Now   August

Yes              48%    52%
No               47     42



If the elections for Congress were being held
today, which party's candidate would you vote
for in your congressional district?

               Now     August

Democratic     47%       44%
Republican     46        48

Likely Voters Only
Sampling error: +/-6% pts



What effect, if any, will the Monica Lewinsky
matter have on your vote for Congress in
November? Will your vote for a candidate be
made in order to send a message that you
support Bill Clinton; be made in order to
send a message that you oppose Bill Clinton;
or will you not be sending a message about
Bill Clinton with your vote?

Vote to support Clinton     22%
Vote to oppose Clinton      19
No effect on vote