Wrong numbers: According to today’s PollWatch from the National Journal, there’s no clear majority opinion among Americans on the topic of phone-record data mining by the National Secret Agency (I suggest this name change, as the agency has little to do with security and everything to do with secrecy). I suppose folks are more concerned with “American Idol” than with American ideals.

A slight majority (51 percent) told Gallup/USA Today pollsters they disapproved of the program to collect phone records, while 43 percent said they approved. A new survey from Newsweek found similar sentiments: 53 percent of respondents said they thought the program “goes too far in invading people’s privacy,” compared with 41 percent who deemed it a “necessary tool to combat terrorism.”

Gallup/USA Today found more than 60 percent said they would not be concerned if they knew the government had their records; 22 percent said they would be very concerned, and 13 percent said they would be somewhat concerned. Those numbers dovetail with an ABC News/Washington Post overnight poll released last week in which 66 percent of respondents said it would not bother them if they learned the NSA had a record of their calls.

But Gallup/USA Today also found that a majority of respondents (57 percent) said they would feel their “personal privacy” had been violated if they knew their phone company had handed their records over to the government; 42 percent said they would not. Nearly two-thirds said they favor immediate hearings in Congress on the issue.

When Newsweek pollsters asked if presidential powers have been overextended “in light of this news and other executive actions by the Bush-Cheney administration,” 57 percent said it had and 38 percent said it had not. Responses were split along party lines — with 81 percent of Democrats and 25 percent of Republicans answering affirmatively — but 61 percent of self-identified independents fell also said yes.

Newsweek’s poll showed another new low for Bush: 35 percent said they approved of the way he is handling his job and 59 percent said they disapproved, a slight shift from March’s 36/58 split.

The direction-of-the-country measure showed a more precipitous drop: Just 23 percent said they were satisfied with the way things are going, down 7 points since the previous poll. A slight majority — 52 percent — said they wanted to see Democrats win back control of Congress in the fall; 35 percent said they wanted the GOP to keep its grip on power.