Post

Let’s Get this Train Back on Track

I just received a copy of a national Gallup Poll done this month that shows the overall American approval rating of the job Congress is doing just hit an all-time low for the 30-plus years Gallup has been conducting the survey. A mere 18% of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing, while 76% said Congress apparently can’t find its backend with both hands.

The approval figure matches that of 1992 when members of the House were caught up in the House Bank scandal, when several members were caught kiting checks left and right. This debacle led a bunch of states to pass term limit laws. The highest approval ever was for the two months following the 9/11 attacks when 84% of those polled gave Congress high marks.

In fairness, Congress generally scores below 50% on the approval scale, according to Gallup. It’s also interesting to note that of those polled, Democrats and Republicans had about the same opinion of the job Congress is doing, when usually members of the party in control are more generous in their evaluations. By the way, President Bush’s approval rating right now is over 32%.

Gallup goes on to speculate as to reasons for the low approval, postulating that perhaps the honeymoon is over, there’s economic unease, etc. I think it’s simpler and more obvious than that: The public is just fed up with 535 members of Congress who spend more time shouting partisan junk at each other, trying to find ways to embarrass each other, while not getting anything done.

I’ve railed about this before, and I actually wrote at one point last year that the 109th Congress was the most dysfunctional I’d ever seen. I was wrong. This Congress is so mired in ego and political posturing, that even when it does act – as in the case of the House version of the 2007 Farm Bill – the action is so mired in controversy and finger pointing as to be embarrassing.

The political pundits predicted six months ago that the Democrats were riding so high in the wake of their 2006 sweep of both chambers that wholesale change was coming. Three months ago, those same pundits were hedging their bets just a bit, and now, analysts on both sides of the political aisle are starting to view the 2008 general election as a likely referendum on change in party control, leadership, and perhaps a return to the old “throw the rascals” out mentality we’ve seen kick in when the public hits its limit on political silliness.

The inaction in Congress also does not serve well those current members running for president. Mark my words, Clinton, Obama, Biden, Kucinich, Brownback and others will begin to campaign against their own institution if they think it will garner votes during primary season.

I think the risk to incumbents of both parties in the upcoming elections is about as high as I’ve seen it if Congress doesn’t become more results oriented. Remember: In 1992, the outcome of public frustration was term limits. This time it may be – and perhaps should be — unemployment.