There’s some speculation that George Bush’s dismally low approval rating made it all that much easier for him to commute Scooter Libby’s sentence because, well, what did he have to lose? His vaunted “political capital?”

As Time’s Richard Lacayo sees it, it’s just another Bush promise that seemed to be broken — or was it?

George W. Bush once promised that anyone in his Administration who broke the law would “be taken care of.” At the time, he appeared to mean they would face the consequences of their actions. Then he took care of I. Lewis Libby, and all at once, his words assumed a somewhat different tone.

Semantics aside, National Journal’s PollTrack surveyed the surveys, and found that Scooter’s Get Out of Jail Card did not play with most Americans:

Just 31 percent of American Research Group respondents said they supported Bush’s move to commute Libby’s sentence. About double that number (64 percent) said they disapproved.

A full pardon would have been even less popular. Just 11 percent of respondents said they supported a “complete presidential pardon” for Libby; 84 percent opposed one. Seven in 10 Republicans said they were against a pardon; 82 percent of Democrats and a whopping 97 percent of independents said the same.

Earlier polls didn’t show much support for a pardon, either. Just two in 10 told FOX News/Opinion Dynamics pollsters two weeks ago that Bush should let Libby off the hook. Polls from CNN/Opinion Research Corporation and Gallup taken soon after the March 6 verdict found similarly low numbers.

Are we, as a nation, fed up enough with Bush and Cheney’s antics to demand they be impeached? Maybe:

The ARG survey also shows that some Americans want to put their disapproval of Bush into action. Forty-five percent of the total sample said they support the House starting impeachment proceedings against the president, including half of all self-described independents. Overall, 46 percent opposed it. Cheney’s numbers were even worse: A 54-percent majority said they wanted to see the House move to impeach the vice president, and four in 10 said they did not.