Posted on 08/26/2007 9:55:05 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
Disappointed by the slow pace of change in Washington, California voters gave Congress its lowest rating in 10 years, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a San Francisco Democrat, saw her approval rating take a sharp drop during the past five months, according to a Field Poll released last week.
Approval of the new Democrat-controlled Congress as an institution is down to 20 percent, a few points lower than the rating last year under Republican leadership. And the approval rating for Pelosi, who became speaker in January, fell from 48 percent in March to 39 percent this month.
Californians' dismal view of Congress reflected the national trend. A Gallup Poll conducted nationwide last week found the approval rating for Congress down to 18 percent, matching the lowest number in more than 30 years.
Political analysts cited several reasons for the poor assessment: Democrats' frustration that a big change in Congress has not changed Iraq war policy; Republicans' reaction against Pelosi and other new leaders; and independents' views that partisan warfare has made it hard for Congress to act on immigration, energy and other issues.
"Expectations were high for the new leadership, and many Democrats are disappointed that the leaders seem to be pulling back from confrontations with the White House over the war and rules for surveillance," said Bruce Cain, who directs the University of California's Washington Center.
Voters are also adjusting to the reality of divided government, with one party controlling the White House and the other holding a majority in Congress, for the first time since the Clinton presidency, Cain added. In the Senate, Democrats have 51 votes, far short of the 60 needed for most legislation.
But the negative view of Congress may not help Republicans retake the Senate or House next year. In the Field Poll, only 19 percent of state voters approved of the Republicans' performance in Congress, compared with a 33 percent approval rating for Democrats.
Even Republican voters in the state take a dim view of the GOP in Congress, with 33 percent approving and 56 percent disapproving of GOP performance.
The Field Poll of 536 voters was conducted by telephone in English and Spanish from Aug. 3 to 12 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
Thomas Mann, an expert on Congress at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, sees "a real difference between the low standing of the institution of Congress, and the Democrats' prospects for next year, which look better than the Republicans' right now."
The poll may also reflect frustration at the pace of change in Congress. With the exception of the minimum wage increase, which Congress passed and President Bush signed, Democratic leaders are making only incremental progress on energy efficiency, expanded health care for children, student loans and other issues.
Although House rules allow Pelosi to move quickly on some legislation, the Senate is much slower, deliberative and vulnerable to obstruction. "The irony is that Pelosi may be getting blamed to some extent for what the Senate has not done," Cain said.
At the same time, though, the state's two senators -- Democrats Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer -- enjoy solid approval ratings. According to the poll, 56 percent of state voters approve of how Feinstein handles her job, and 48 percent approve of Boxer.
The relatively healthy approval ratings for the state's senators are a result of the perception that "they are working hard for the state" and that neither Feinstein nor Boxer has faced a tough re-election in recent years, Cain said.
Feinstein has taken a leading role in securing spending for the state and, as a member of the Judiciary Committee, has sharply questioned Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Boxer, who is chairwoman of the Environment Committee, has held numerous hearings on global warming and plans to push climate change legislation this fall.
"These are popular stands in California," Cain said, adding that the Field Poll demonstrates the political adage that many voters despise Congress but give their own representatives high marks.
Lady DiChiFi MILCON and BabbleOn Boxer continue to benefit from an ignorant and uninformed public for support.
Love the way the Junk Media manufactures their own reality rather then deal with the world as it is.
For 7 months the Democrat Congress did nothing but fight with President Bush on Iraq.
Their approval rating went from 50% to 14% ( and a mind boggleing 3% on the issue of how the Congress is handeling Iraq) Bush approval rating is now back at 40%.
As usual the Politically Corrupted media has it exactly wrong. It not BUSH that is under political pressure on Iraq. After all, he will never be running again while those 58 Democrats who represent districts that voted for Bush more then 51% in 2004 have to run again in 2008.
Going to be pretty tough for any of them to go home and run in 2008 as Reagan 2, like they did in 2006, after they spent 2007 and 2008 being John Kerry Jr in DC.
That's more like it.
That first sentence is a complete lie. People are disappointed by what Congress does, not what it doesn't do.
Gotta love how they try to spin it as the Democrats are not being liberal enough, when the truth is they ran as conservative to get elected and the public is mad because they are acting like lapdogs to the far left whackos.
EUroAmeriKa is their goal. nothing short of that will satisfy the left and their minions in the media.
In the mean time,, the Islamos sharpen their daggers and swords for the day they can slit these same indiots throats and finish their quest to rule the world.
That's not anything to be proud of. All that hike in pay did was hurt the low income people that they claim they were trying to help. When people get a raise, everyone around them wants a raise too, so they jack the price of rent, groceries, gasoline, etc, and the ones who got the raise, or the ones who were laid off so the higher wages could be met by small business owners actually took a decrease in pay. Democrats just don't understand small businesses.
Exactly.
Even this may be a bit optimistic. The last poll I saw (I forget which one it was), just a few days ago, showed Congress's approval at an even more dismal 18 percent.
Of course, I do not know the time frame for the conducting of these two polls, or anything about their respective methodologies. And a two percentage-point difference is rather negligible, anyway--probably within the margin of error.
It is just that an approval rating in the teens seems especially damning--even more so than one in the low 20s.
This is nice to see but no rat will lose a seat in mexifornia.
Consequently, (IMO), America is more red now than before and the socialists have not been able to make up the loss from passing any legislation that might allow illegal colonists from being able to legally vote.
2008 is ours to lose (again, IMO) and the only question remaining to us is, who to elect in the primary.
We've got time, yet .. so I'm not altogether that concerned ... but we have some good men in our ranks.
I hope we can sufficiently agree on America's savior (yes ... IMO ... it is that critical and important).
I suspect you may well be correct.
We shall have to see if the new CA GOP leadership has anything to offer but more of the same.
Buyer’s remorse.
I haven't kept up. What exactly happened at the last SPP summit? Last I heard it was.... sssh, a secret.
Not only that, but the MSM covers always for Democrats. Democrat failure on Iraq could easily be blamed on Bush. But the numbers don’t reflect that. I really see this as the loss of the ability of the MSM to shape opinion, due to the influence of the internet.
In otherwards, the information playing field is being level leveled.
What exactly happened at the last SPP summit?
—
Not sure.. This is one monster that we will have to confront when there is nowhere to run from it any longer... and it likely won’t be pretty, much as when the Mexican trucks roll North.
The 110th Congress is the most immature, whiny, do-nothing, enemy-appeasing bunch of surrender monkeys to ever set foot in the Capitol building. And their approval ratings show it. You’d think they’d take a hint.
“promising things they could never deliver...”
Actually, they could deliver them if they really believed in them. The problem is that they know the things they support would bring disaster on the US, and lead to their own downfall.
Thus, they only support them when the GOP is in control.
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