This is a transcript from Lou Dobbs' show, January 23rd:

DOBBS: A new CNN-"USA Today"-Gallup poll finds the majority of Americans, however, do not approve of the way President Bush is handling the immigration -- the illegal immigration issue.

Our senior political analyst, Bill Schneider, joins me now from Washington and has the story for us.

Bill, what is the public saying on this critical issue in this election year?

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, Lou, there were seven issues tested in that poll. And President Bush got his worst rating, worst of all seven, on the issue of immigration.

Only 25 percent, just one quarter of Americans, say they approve the way the president has been handling immigration. Sixty-two percent disapprove. Worse than the economy, worse than Iraq, worse even in the current hot topic in Washington, which is corruption.

Now there's only one issue that was asked about where most Americans believe the president is doing a good job. That is terrorism.

That's been the case ever since 9/11. And right now, it's the one issue that the president has -- has got left.

You might recall what Karl Rove told the Republican National Committee on Friday, that the Republicans won on the terrorism issue in 2002, they won again on it in 2004, and they have every intention on running yet again on the terrorism issue, making it their issue in 2006. DOBBS: You are certainly one of the country's savviest political analyst. Can they do it three times in a row?

SCHNEIDER: Well, if the Democrats let them. The Democrats don't fight back and make a cogent argument that the United States is not doing a good job fighting the war on terrorism, that the United States is not safer than it was, you haven't really heard that argument made very well by many Democrats so far.

DOBBS: On the illegal immigration issue, the fact is that most expect the Senate to defy the House and good -- and the good sense of their constituents, an attempt to pull a double-cross, and that is effectively pass, despite the public's disapproval, pass the president's guest worker program and do absolutely nothing on border security.

SCHNEIDER: That may well happen. The Senate holds itself somewhat distant from public opinion on issues like this. The House is often much closer, much more of a populist body.

You saw what happened at the Republican National Committee last week. There was very nearly a revolt in the president's own party against his immigration policy. It had to be pulled at the last minute. And the committee ended up voting confidence in the president's policy, but there was a revolt simmering there just beneath the surface in the Republican National Committee.

DOBBS: With the poll numbers that we're looking at, does this appear to be a year, assuming that the trend does not change markedly or substantially from here, in which we might see a repeat of 1994 with immigration -- illegal immigration one the primary issues?

SCHNEIDER: Well, there could be a political earthquake. If you look at the numbers, if you look at the odds on the Democrats taking control of Congress, you can't say it really looks very good.

But I'm here to tell you, earthquakes do happen. And we've seen it happen before.

DOBBS: Right.

SCHNEIDER: And the Republicans have a strategy for dealing with the earthquake, and it's the same thing they did before Karl Rove announced it, which is embrace the terrorism issue.

DOBBS: Bill, the warrantless wiretaps, how big an issue? And is the public supporting the president on the issue?

SCHNEIDER: Well, let's take a look at what the polls showed.

Forty-six percent of Americans said the Bush administration was right in -- to wiretap conversations between American citizens and suspected terrorists in other countries without a court order. Fifty- one percent said it was wrong.

The numbers saying it's wrong has gone up a few points, about five points over the last two weeks. But I would say that the public really is divided on this.

The administration, as we see, is engaged in a public relation's offensive. It's not being defensive about this issue at all. In fact, the president today relabeled the wiretap program a "terrorist surveillance program."

This administration clearly believes it has an issue, the war on terror, that trumps all other issues: Iraq, the economy, corruption, immigration, everything. And as I said, in the last two elections, it did