Thirty-eight percent (38%) of Americans believe President Bush should be censured for approving the NSA wiretapping program. A Rasmussen Reports survey found that 45% are opposed to the proposal advocated by Senator Russell Feingold.

Thirty-six percent (36%) of Americans say they are more likely to vote for a candidate who believes it is important to censure or impeach the President. Forty-two percent (42%) are less likely to vote for such a candidate.

When we initially asked if people had a favorable or an unfavorable opinion of Feingold, his name recognition was very low--15% favorable and 23% unfavorable. After asking questions about censure and informing respondents that Feingold was the advocate, his numbers jumped to 32% favorable and 41% unfavorable.

Advocating censure does offer a boost for Feingold within the Democratic Party. Initially, 22% of Democrats had a favorable opinion of him while 16% had an unfavorable opinion. However, knowing he advocates censure, Feingold's numbers within his own party jumped to 52% favorable and 14% unfavorable.

The flip side is that Republicans have an overwhelming negative opinion of the maverick Senator--9% favorable and 74% unfavorable.

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Censure is favored by 39% of men and 37% of women. Men are more likely to oppose the formal reprimand.

In this survey, Rasmussen Reports initially asked for an opinion of Senator Feingold. Then, we asked how closely respondents had followed stories of the NSA wiretapping program.

The question about censure was "Senator Russ Feingold has introduced a measure to censure, or publicly reprimand, President Bush for authorizing the NSA wiretapping program. Should President Bush be censured for authorizing the NSA wiretapping program?"

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