Latest AP poll has America’s opinion of Congress even lower than that of Bush. If you add the approval rating for Congress to the approval rating for Bush, you almost get a decent approval rating.
Republicans have had a very low approval rating for months, around 20%, but what has really hit the numbers is that Democrats opinions have plummeted from about 48% to about 27%.
Everyone will have their opinions and spin on why the approval is so low, but the bottom line is America just doesn’t like the way any part of the Washington system is working (or not working) these days.
Interesting quote from John Dickerson (I think) on the Slate Gabfest Podcast about how congress is ineffectual if the Chief Executive refuses to act like one. Bush is not going to do anything about Iraq except to try and run out the clock.
Between filibuster, veto and stonewalling the GOP and Bush have been able to keep the Congress that a majority of the public voted for from doing its job.
Of course a majority of people are disappointed that Congress has not moved the ball on Iraq. I don’t believe the Democrats will suffer congressional losses from these low approval numbers though. Anyone paying attention can see which party is tossing monkeywrenches.
I do think that as congress continuing to reveal Administration malfesiance (sp?) will start to become a frustration as it becomes clear that it lacks the ability and maybe the will to do anything about it. Gonzales will be AG until Bush leaves office.
There was an interesting political science thing I read recently about how Congressional approval ratings tend to trail the President’s, and you get the odd result of same-party disapproval, for some complicated reason. Gah, now I can’t find it.
There was an interesting political science thing I read recently about how Congressional approval ratings tend to trail the President’s, and you get the odd result of same-party disapproval, for some complicated reason. Gah, now I can’t find it. Maybe that Democrats will disapprove until the war ends, and Republicans don’t approve of the Democratic-controlled Congress? Can’t remember.
For example, the “who would you vote for today” number for Congress is 53/41 Democrats. The re-elect your congresscritter number is 41/48 against, interestingly.
Edit: Some background. Apparently congress doesn’t go above 40, and hovers in the 30 range most of the time. The current number is as low as it gets, though.
CONGRESS AND THE POLLS. For all the talk of Congress’s low approval ratings, congressional Democrats are doing a whole lot better than congressional Republicans. According to a new Washington Postpoll, Reid andPelosi’s forces attract a 46 percent approval rating, while the Republicans are down at 36 percent. This may actually be the relevant measure: Too often, when we talk about the favorability of Congress as an institution, we forget that such numbers measure opinions of both the minority and majority parties – not just the majority party.
It’s interesting, too, that opinions of the two congressional delegations have been pretty static over the past decade or so. Save for a few months in 1994, Democrats have posted favorability numbers between 41% and 51% with startling consistency. And Republicans have remained between 34% and 48%. That data is a little patchy, misseing key years like 2002, what with its post-9/11 bump, but it’s interesting to see that there’s really been no macro trend effecting either group.
Who cares which party is more popular if they don’t do anything?
The most worrying sign of illness in our democratic government is how our elected representatives seem incapable of standing up to the “great leader”, or even get anything done without direct stimulus from the executive. It worries me that more and more it seems like Democrats and Republicans alike are increasingly dependent upon the office of the President to create, implement, and execute any sort of policy, forfeiting their legislative roles out of incapacity, deadlock, or cynical politiking (letting the other side hang itself, or refusing to implement controversial changes) and being resigned to more and more de facto power being handed over to the whim of one person in order to get anything done at all.
We can already see the jockeying for money weeding out candidates right now, regardless of their merit, making the race one almost of sheer wealth and economic leverage.
It’s getting to the point where i can foresee walking down a path that in 30 years lead the US to crown it’s first Princeps.
Cant do anything is the more operative word here. The GOP under Bush did plenty. Including starting a war and slashing taxes for the wealthy.
When you say “do something” to the Democrats, you are really saying “un do the last 6 years”.
Pretty tough against a filibustering congress and a vetoing president.
Given that the Dems have a small majority in one chamber, a dead heat in the other, bringing motions to undo the damage and hold investigations are the best they can do.
I need to do some research here, but weren’t the majority of the major bills and initiatives (like the prescription drug bill) passed during the Republican majority essentially pushed by the President even if the executive wasn’t their author?
Now this is curious. In the latest Gallup poll, more Republicans approve of the job Congress is doing than there are Democrats who approve. According to the poll, 37% of Republicans approve of Congress’ performance, compared to 23% of Democrats and 14% of independents, with an overall rating of 24% approval and 71% disapproval. This is odd, of course, considering that both houses have Democratic majorities. But on second thought, the current Congress has passed President Bush’s funding requests for Iraq, passed his FISA bill, and has given the White House exactly what it wanted on a host of other issues. So what do Republicans really have to complain about?
Interesting. But that still says that 63% of Republicans dislike what’s going on in Congress, not as high as 77% of Dems but still far from a ringing approval.
So, Webb’s bill failed to pass, due to the Democrats being unable to muster enough votes to overcome a filibuster.
Why exactly is the Republican minority able to use the filibuster to force Congress to stay the course, while the Democrats apparently couldn’t do shit with it?
Democrats are playing on Hard Mode and have fewer class-based special abilities than Republicans, which leads to a lot of gameplay problems. Not only that, in this patch Filibuster is a very powerful ability but the Republicans have the only high-level Blowhards to use it.
There are even accusations of wallhacks, speedhacks, and botting, but you’ll see that in any MP game.
