The weekend's fevered political positioning came just days after the House voted, in a highly partisan split, to open an impeachment inquiry.

A partisan split will undermine the hearings by helping to cast them as Republican bullying.

The chairman had also insisted that there was no partisan split on how the committee should act.

There was a big partisan split, with only a third of the Democrats supporting an attack.

The issue shows substantial partisan split as Republicans back Sunday hunting 53 - 39 percent, as do independent voters 50 - 38 percent.

Despite this relatively even partisan split, forty-two per cent of the respondents described themselves as "conservative" or "very conservative."

The question of how serious the partisan split is remains unsettled.

The partisan split on the committee was clear in opening remarks from several members.

Whatever the explanation, the partisan split was a major setback for the Administration, its first big stumble of the gulf crisis.

But the aides said the new limits represented a significant change from current law and were the best they could do given the partisan split in the Legislature.