The latest Gallup poll shows Congress with an approval rating of 29 percent. This compares unfavorably with President Bush's approval rating, which stands at 33 percent according to the same poll. Moreover, Congress' 64 percent disapproval rating is one point higher than that of the last Congress just before the 2006 elections.
Why is this Congress viewed so unfavorably? Part of the explanation lies in the inherent unpopularity of the institution as it has evolved. At the beginning of the year, Congress' approval rating was only 37 percent even though every member of the House had just won the popular vote in his or her district.
However, the poor performance of the Reid-Pelosi Congress surely helps account for the decline since that time. As I noted the other day, Congress has started to resist the ethics reform it promised voters, legislation that might help reverse prevailing perceptions of Congress and make that body less inherently unpopular.
But it's not just Democratic addiction to the "culture of corruption" that's at work here. The fact is that this Congress has failed thus far to enact any high-profile domestic legislation. As the Washington Post puts it, "not a single priority on the Democrats' agenda has been enacted, and some in the party are growing nervous that the "do nothing" tag they slapped on the Republicans last year could come back to haunt the party."
Perhaps Nancy Pelosi should discontinue her foolish outreach program to anti-American Middle Eastern dictators and focus more on enacting the reform legislation she promised the American people.
UPDATE: John Hinderaker has more on this story at Power Line.
Reader Comments ( Page 4 of 5)
46. Zev - Read your stuff.
The best my minimal time could come up with was from Wikepedia, sorry:
Source Wikepedia, National Socialsim
"...The Nazi relationship between the Volk and the state was called the Volksgemeinschaft ("people's community"), a late 19th or early 20th century neologism that defined a communal duty of citizens in service to the Reich (opposed to a simple "society"). The term "National Socialism", derives from this citizen-nation relationship, whereby the term socialism is invoked and is meant to be realized through the common duty of the individuals to the German people; all actions are to be in service of the Reich. In practice, the Nazis argued, their goal was to bring forth a nation-state as the locus and embodiment of the people's collective will, bound by the Volksgemeinschaft as both an ideal and an operating instrument. Party spokesman Joseph Goebbels insisted in 1932 that the NSDAP was a "workers' party" and "on the side of labor and against finance".[27] Hitler said of the Nazis "We are socialists, we are enemies of today's capitalistic economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance".[28] However, he was clear to point out that Nazism "has nothing to do with Marxian Socialism," saying that "Marxism is anti-property; true Socialism is not."[29] He further said that "I absolutely insist on protecting private property... we must encourage private initiative".[30] Nevertheless, he wanted property to be regulated to make sure "benefit to the community precedes benefit to the individual".[31] Attacks were made on what Hitler called "pluto-democracy," which was claimed to be a conspiracy by Jews to favor democratic parties in order to keep capitalism intact.[32]...
Source: Wikepdia
Zev: I appreciate your extensive research and sourcing in support of your position, but I don't see the difference, other than the distain for the military, between the "cradle-to-grave", "it takes a village", big governmnet philosophies of the uberleft now, and National Socialism then.
A lot of people make big bucks on war; not that it's right, but it is, and will continue to be a fact of life in any war: Ask Joe Kennedy Sr. Let's assume everything you stated about the Bushs' connections is right. Let's agree that GWB is too stupid to get all these connections and only care about 'winning'. Other than historical elucidation, or, I have to allow for, revision, What's the point?
scruzman at 10:26PM on May 15th 2007
47. Zev Re: "Please also read '1984' for the concept of 'Newspeak'. In it the Ministry of Truth is the organ of lies, the Ministry of Peace is the organ of terror, and so on. This work is clearly the operating manual of this administration and the mass media which functions for it."
You've got to be kidding. Ever heard of PC speech, hate crimes, hate speech. People are prosecuted and fired for breaking these rules: If libs had full power, they'd hang Limbaugh in the public square! This is the Newspeak you speak of and it didn't come from conservatives.
scruzman at 6:25PM on May 24th 2007
48. I agree with Michelle....The democrats would have an easier/ more productive time of it if the republicans and the prez would take a minute and stop stuffing their planet-sized mattresses with oil money long enough to see what their actions are doing to the rest of us. Republican puppets like Paul sadly realize the mindlessness of most Americans and know they can successfully steer the majority one way or the other as their bullshit dictates. The only saving grace is that Bush will surely go down in history as one of our WORST presidents and in the end they will all share in the fate they are so blindly creating for us all.
Tim Sampson at 10:30PM on May 15th 2007
49. Zev and Scruzman.....get lives. No one cares about your private debate and you have completely gotten off the subject. Why don't you two exchange digits and spare the rest of us.
Tim Sampson at 10:35PM on May 15th 2007
50.
The big players play the Oil Game like Monopoly. It has been going on throughout the 20th century and you think Bush should not play the game, or stop it; blaming him, one way or another, for all the evils that will eventually consume us.
Nonsense and Naive.
The only way to stop the machine is to stop using the machine. Go Solar!
scruzman at 10:38PM on May 15th 2007
51. The leadership in Washington D.C. is failing
terribly, both Democratic and Republican.
Gas prices are out of control (as if we didn't
know that would happen!). The Comprehensive
Immigration Reform Bill is a cheap reenactment
of the same thing that happened in 1986 (amnesty).
And the consequences of our pulling out of Iraq
abruptly in the context of the entire Middle
East situation are neither being articulated
nor discussed.
Hopefully, this Congress and administration will
do nothing else. It's always easier and less
expensive to do something right the first time
than to have to do it over. And this Congress
and administration can't seem to get anything
right, other than the high price of gasoline
to benefit big oil companies, whose owners are already rich and whose CEO's earn obscene salaries.
My concern is this: How can we put this bunch
on hold for another year and a half? They can
do incalculably damage in that period of time.
Eva at 10:54PM on May 15th 2007
52. Phil,
Your comments are excellent and to the point.
Paul, as you well phrased it, uses the same tactics the Republicans have used for the last six and a half years. "Selective quotations" for Paul, "selective wars, laws, religions, etc. etc" for the Republicans.
Truthfully, I don't understand how anyone could be so blind and so fanatic as the Republican voters. If you dare question you are not a "patriot". How did this come about? I suppose, as the polls show, that more than 70% of USA citizens are not patriots and they hate their country, and all that because they don't agree with the government. This government took a beautiful, healthy and prosperous country and brought very close to a depression, bankrupt and isolated it from the rest of the world. Should we be concerned that history repeats itself? Empires have come and gone!
Let's all vote different next time around and hopefully we can leave a good inheritance to our next generation. A great, beautiful and prosperous USA as it was before.
Kiki at 11:41PM on May 15th 2007
53. You can see why there wasn't time for tough questions from this bunch on Iraq before the war.
The Iraq War resolution was passed by a Democrat controlled Senate.
So who is the fool ?
Neo at 12:59AM on May 16th 2007
54. Mirengoff,
Didn't Powerline run this post just a little while ago? Did you guys already forget that Congress almost always has a lower approvel rating than even a presichimp?
lil_turk at 3:39AM on May 16th 2007
55. Phil, THANKS FOR THE WONDERFUL COMMENTARY, YOU CERTAINLEY SHARE MY SENTIMENTS...P.S. I wrote in caps because I couldnot have said it better!!!
K. at 3:52AM on May 16th 2007
56. When will AOL stop promoting bias news reports from unreliable "news" reporters, and start aiming at a non-bias fact only coverage of the news.
Also Paul, from my understanding from what I read of yours you believe that Democrats don't care about the military and what they are doing. I don't support the cause, but I sure do support every man or woman who is willing to put their life on the line even if they are serving for a president who has committed more atrocities than Clinton ever did, and has not yet been impeached for it.
Trevor at 3:59AM on May 16th 2007
57. Phil,Phil,,,look who's talking. All your ranting and raving is pure baloney. You coulda saved time and energy just by saying, I don't agree with you. Instead, your wasted rhetoric only highlighted your political ignorance. Wake up, and smell the roses. You obviously live in La-La Land. Have some more kool-ade.
Brutus at 5:09AM on May 16th 2007
58. Greg writes: "Phil, I thought you had given up reading Paul’s posts. I hope this means you’re feeling better."
Hi Greg - I left you a message in a comment to Jeff Hoard's blog I think, as I really appreciated your best wishes. I am pleased to announce I am feeling better - the two new pills (one just to kill a UTI) added to "breakfast" have helped a lot. So, I decided to go back to limited mud wrestling - but I did drop out of Dinesh's blog permanently. Now I'm just blogging Powerline, and am reading through the transcript Paul proved. Nice to see you on! Phil
Phil at 6:18AM on May 16th 2007
59. Vegastron - Thank you. I always like what you have to say too. I especially agree that it would be nice to get to a day when there is less partisanship; and think that will happen when we have a Democratic Congress and President. The healing and repair can then really begin (ooooops - I think I slipped into being partisan :) ) Phil
Phil at 6:22AM on May 16th 2007
60. Kiki writes: - "Truthfully, I don't understand how anyone could be so blind and so fanatic as the Republican voters. If you dare question you are not a "patriot". How did this come about? I suppose, as the polls show, that more than 70% of USA citizens are not patriots and they hate their country, and all that because they don't agree with the government. This government took a beautiful, healthy and prosperous country and brought very close to a depression, bankrupt and isolated it from the rest of the world. Should we be concerned that history repeats itself? Empires have come and gone!"
Kiki, I think its happened because of blogs like this, a quick hit job on Congress that Americans read, but they're too busy working harder than ever to stay afloat to check the sourses. If I wasn't retired I wouldn't have time to check. Congress is doing EXACTLY what the voters told it to do, and the voters know this. If there is any dip in Congress' popularity its because of Republican obstruction. I feet you, Mel, Hugo, K and Ze ALony attest to the fact that America knows this. Ze adds an interesting perspective.
mel and III, I certainly respect your right not to read long blogs - and I do feel it takes awhile to analyze a hit piece like this on Congress. Mel, having my own blog to actually take the time to deconstruct a hit piece like Paul just did on Congress is not compatible with my life. I'm totally disabled and retired with paraplegia complications, and could not meet the deadlines. However, as an ex lawyer, I don't want my tombstone to read "he really knew how to screw a corporation." So, I devote an hour or so a day if I feel like it to responding with all the facts I feel need to be brought to the topic. One thing you could do is, if you see a lengthy blog, scroll down and if you see my name just don't read it. In the meantime, AOL does not prohibit deconstrucion of a hit piece on Congress in a set number of words.
Phil at 6:58AM on May 16th 2007