Poll suggests Dems asking for blowout at ballot box

Editor's note: This is another in a series of monthly "WND/WENZEL POLLS" conducted exclusively for WND by the public-opinion research and media consulting company Wenzel Strategies.

Demonstrators protest against Arizona's controversial SB1070 immigration law outside the U.S. District Court in Phoenix July 15, 2010. The SB1070 law, currently being challenged at the court to prevent it from going into effect on July 29, would make the failure to carry immigration documents a crime and give the police broad power to detain anyone suspected of being in the country illegally. REUTERS/Joshua Lott (UNITED STATES - Tags: CIVIL UNREST CRIME LAW POLITICS SOCIETY)

Whether a majority of Americans dislike the federal government's attack on Arizona's immigration law because they don't like Washington or whether they don't like Washington at least partly because of the lawsuit against Arizona may be hard to say.

But what is evident in a new "WND/WENZEL POLLS" project conducted exclusively for WND by the public-opinion research and media consulting company Wenzel Strategies is that majority Democrats in Washington are creating a lot of opposition for themselves with their stance on illegal immigration.

"I cannot remember a time when a party had so many top-drawer issues running against them as the Democrats face right now," said Fritz Wenzel in an analysis of the results of the July poll, citing the Arizona dispute as one of the hottest issues.

"Nearly two out of three citizens – 63 percent – said they support the Arizona law and not the U.S. lawsuit," he said. "The percentages are much higher among both Republicans and political independents, which does not bode well for President Obama and leading Democrats who have voiced backing for the lawsuit."

The poll was conducted using an automated technology calling a random sampling of listed telephone numbers nationwide over the period of July 15-17 The results have a margin of error of 2.51 percentage points.

Wenzel pointed out that just three years ago when President Bush was advocating for a mass amnesty – or "comprehensive immigration reform" as both he and Obama have designated their ideas – it was the same issue "that caused the job approval of the U.S. Congress to plummet to single digits."

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Now with a "landmark" election just weeks away, Wenzel said it was "amazing" the Washington leaders "are willing to wade back into such troubled waters."

He continued, "This is particularly surprising given that the issue landscape for Democrats is already tilted so heavily against them. This issue promises to be the third leg to a stool on which Republicans still stand to gain leverage to kick Democrats from office in November."

The numbers are fairly clear: 58 percent say they consider Obama's job performance poor to fair and only 38 percent said it was good to excellent. Among the GOP, 93 percent consider his work poor to fair and among independents 67 percent consider his work poor to fair.

Seventy-eight percent consider Congress doing poor or fair and 16 percent responded good or excellent.

On the issue of Arizona's law, while 63 percent support the state law, only one in four supports the federal government's lawsuit.

"The disparity in reaction to this question along partisan lines is serious – as 53 percent of Democrats support the lawsuit, 94 percent of Republicans oppose it. Independents, which my research shows include many disaffected Republicans who left after 2006, favor the Arizona law over the federal lawsuit by a 69-percent to 22-percent margin," Wenzel said.

He said the poll also reveals Americans "are of a mixed mind on the question of whether the Obama Justice Department is making legal judgments based on race over the rule of law."

"In the aftermath of a charge by a former U.S. attorney that the department exercises a pervasive bias in favor of black defendants accused of crimes against white victims, 33 percent believe it to be true, while 24 percent said they do not believe it. A plurality of 43 percent said they were not sure on the question," he said.

The survey said 16 percent give the Justice Department a letter grade of "A," while 44 percent hand out a "D" or an "F."

He also said, "There is a widespread belief that the Justice Department also allows politics to get in the way of its enforcement of the rule of law. This recent polling shows that only 35 percent believe the Justice Department would be fair and impartial in prosecuting corruption, fraud, waste and abuse within the executive branch of government. Asked whether the department would fairly prosecute alleged crimes committed by Democrats, 34 percent said they believed it would, while 47 percent said they did not think it would do so."

If you are a member of the media and would like to interview Fritz Wenzel about this story, please e-mail.

See detailed results of survey questions:

The U.S. Justice Department is suing the state of Arizona over a law that permits local law-enforcement officers to check the immigration status of those stopped for some other reason. What are your thoughts about the law?

The U.S. Justice Department has been accused by a former U.S. attorney of dropping a voter-intimidation case against the New Black Panthers because of what the former U.S. attorney calls a pervasive bias in favor of black defendants accused of crimes against white victims. What are your thoughts about the accusation?

There have been several high-profile situations involving Obama's Justice Department in his first 18 months in office. Overall, how would you grade Obama's Justice Department?

Would you trust the Obama Justice Department to be fair and impartial in prosecuting corruption, fraud, waste and abuse within the executive branch of the government?

Would you trust the Obama Justice Department to be fair and impartial in prosecuting suspected crimes by fellow Democrats?

Do you approve or disapprove of the job performance of President Barack Obama?

Do you approve or disapprove of the job performance of Congress?

Overall, do you think the nation is headed in the right direction, or are things off on the wrong track?

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