Not only did bush's job approval rating slip to 34%, there was also this bad news:
1. Americans believe the Republican leadership of the House put their political interests ahead of the safety of teenage pages and were well aware of former Congressman Mark Foley’s untoward behavior toward young men long before he was forced to resign.
2. Nearly 70 percent of respondents, including a majority of Republicans, said that most members of Congress do not follow the same rules of behavior as average Americans. And nearly 70 percent, again including a majority of Republicans, said that most members of Congress consider themselves above the law. Fifty-one percent said the House Republican leadership handled the Foley case improperly, versus 27 percent who said they handled it properly. Nearly 50 percent said the House Speaker, J. Dennis Hastert, should step down.
3. The number of Americans who approve of President Bush’s handling of terrorism dropped from 54 percent to 46 percent in just two weeks, suggesting that any political lift Mr. Bush gained in the course of an orchestrated set of ceremonies marking the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks had evaporated. In addition, the poll shows that Americans are now evenly divided over which party they think that can better handle terrorism, the first time that Democrats have matched Republicans on this issue. The poll was conducted before North Korea announced that it detonated a nuclear weapon.
4. The public’s view of the war is as dark as it’s been since the war began in 2003: two-thirds say it is going somewhat or very badly, while only 3 percent said the war was going very well. Two-thirds said they disapprove of how Mr. Bush is handling the war.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/politics/20061010_poll_results.pdf">Complete Results
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/?p=300