The new Washington Post poll (via Kevin Drum) gives us more detail on what lies behind the low approval ratings the Congress has received recently. While 57% of the respondents disapprove of the job performance of the Democrats in Congress, ten percent more (for a total of 67%) disapprove of the job the Republicans in Congress are doing. Imagine that. And when respondents who think that the Congress has achieved little or nothing are asked to assign blame for that 51% pin it squarely on Bush and the Republicans in Congress, whereas only 25% see the Democrats in Congress as the culprits. These findings lay to rest the conservative argument that the low approval rates of the Congress are shorthand for low approval rates of the Congressional Democrats now in majority. But of course the Democrats are not getting off shot-free, either. I was especially fascinated to learn that 55% of the poll respondents believe that they have not gone far enough in their opposition to the war in Iraq. That's a majority, whatever the conventional wisdom inside the Beltway might say. --J. Goodrich
