Low polls

President Bush, in a bitter showdown with Congress over Iraq, has crept up a speck from an all-time low in his job approval rating. But his standing is the weakest of any second-term president at this point in 56 years.

The numbers in the latest AP-Ipsos poll gave the White House little reason for cheer as Bush opened a weeklong visit to Latin America to bolster U.S. influence in the face of rising anti-American sentiment.

Weighed down by the unpopular war in Iraq, which is about to begin its fifth year, and opposition to his decision to send more troops into combat, Bush had an approval rating of 35 percent in early March. Still, that was up from 32 percent in February when his rating was tied for an all time low in AP-Ipsos polling.

Seizing on voters' frustration with the war, House Democrats challenged Bush with legislation Thursday requiring the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq by October of next year. It would mark the first time the new Democratic-controlled Congress has established a date certain for the end of U.S. combat.