President Bush’s job approval rating has fallen to 30 percent, once again hitting the all-time low-water mark of his presidency as Americans continue their disaffection with his leadership of the Iraq war, a new Zogby International telephone poll shows.

He hit this low mark previously in December.

Since then, he has made sweeping changes in the military leadership and plan of attack in Iraq, but none of it has convinced the American electorate, Zogby polling shows.

Bush has also begun to defend his military leadership in front of a confrontational Democratic-controlled Congress, as a committee opened hearings today into shabby living conditions for patients at Walter Reed Medical Center in the Washington area, where soldiers injured in Iraq and Afghanistan are sent to recuperate.

Zogby polling in January and February found Bush’s positive job rating improving slightly, to 32 percent, but it was only a minor bump coming off his all-time low rating of 30 percent in December. In late September 2006, Bush’s job approval rating was 42 percent, but it has continued to slide since then.

The telephone survey of 867 likely voters nationwide was conducted March 1-2, 2007, and carries a margin of error of +/- 3.4 percentage points.

While overall, 30 percent gave Bush positive marks for his leadership of the nation, 69 percent gave him negative ratings. Sixty-one percent of Republicans gave Bush positive marks, compared with just 7 percent of Democrats and 20 percent of self-described independents. In December, 60 percent of Republicans gave Bush positive ratings, compared with 9 percent of Democrats and 22 percent of independents. Bush enjoys higher job performance ratings from women (35 percent) than from men (25 percent).

Overall, just 23 percent gave Bush positive ratings for his handling of the war in Iraq, unchanged from our polling last month. Just over a year ago, 37 percent said they approved of how the president was handling the war, according to a Zogby Poll in February 2006.

As support for the president continues to wane, the majority of Americans (60 percent) said they lack confidence in the direction the U.S. is headed—down just slightly from the 61 percent who said they feel the country is off on the wrong track in last month’s poll. Just 31 percent said the U.S. is headed in the right direction, also down slightly from the 32 percent who said they felt the same in late February.