AP: 'Half the Country' says Speaker Hastert Should Resign?

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The AP did a fine job of advocacy for the Democratic Party tonight in a story on Bush's appearance with Speaker Hastert at an Illinois fund-raiser for two GOP candidates for Congress.

In Bush Gives Hastert Boost in Time of Need, the AP made a few outrageous statements that amount to tearing down Republicans as opposed to merely reporting news.

The AP tried to characterize Bush as a "tepid" supporter of Speaker Hastert and directly said that "half the country" wanted Hastert to resign.

The $1.1 million fundraiser provided the first picture of Bush with Hastert since a scandal broke involving a Republican congressman pursuing underage male pages. Although the president has spoken out in Hastert's defense — tepidly at first and more directly at a White House news conference on the eve of the fundraiser — their appearance together was an endorsement of Hastert when nearly half the country says he should resign.

(Emphasis mine)

So, um, WHERE do they get this "half the country" statistic? Out of their rear-ends, that's where.

Maybe we might be near the truth to say half the registered voters might have said that they want Hastert to resign, but CERTAINLY not half the country. Not even half the country votes in the first place! And, it is highly doubtful that half the electorate even knows who Denny Hastert is to even want him to resign.

No, this "half the country" statistic is a figment of the AP's fever swamp imagination.

Then the AP went on to helpfully let us know that they think the GOP will soon be on the outside looking in re power in Congress...

Whether Hastert and the Republican Party will remain in power in the House next year is in doubt. Democrats need to pick up just 15 seats to win control, and Republican-held seats across the country are in jeopardy in the wake of the Foley case, continuing violence in Iraq and the dissatisfaction with Bush's leadership.

And this has to do with Bush's visit... how?

They spend more time with this story bashing Bush and Speaker Hastert than describing the fundraiser.

And this is "journalism"?