A Good Year for the Outlaw

I’ve about run out of patience with the latest “talking point” from the right. To wit:”Congress has even lower approval ratings than the President.”

First of all…Duh. Congress almost ALWAYS has lower approval ratings than the President, no matter who it is. Why? Because people always say “congress is doing a bad job…well, all of ‘em except MY congressman.” If you ask a lefty if congress is doing a good job, and he says “yes”, then he is, on some level, voicing approval for some of those on the right. It obviously works the other way, too.

Secondly, let’s go to Gallup and see what they have to say:

The current confidence rating for Congress — 14% — is the lowest in Gallup’s history for that institution. Although ratings of Congress have never been high, they were at the 40% level at the time of Watergate in the 1970s, and again in 1986.

Americans’ confidence in the presidency has dropped concomitantly with the drop in Bush’s approval ratings. In 2002, 58% were confident in the presidency compared to the current 25%. President Bush’s job approval ratings have fallen from 84% at the beginning of 2002 to 32% today.

At 34%, confidence in the Supreme Court, like Congress, is at its lowest point in Gallup’s trend. Confidence in the Supreme Court has been at or above the 50% point at several times during the last several decades.

Whoa! Read that last paragraph again. What’s that? The Supreme Court, which unlike Congress HAS at times received 50% and above approval ratings, is at it’s lowest point ever in Gallup’s trend? Hmmm. So in reality, the Supreme Court has taken an arguably BIGGER hit than Congress, when you look at the “usual” numbers. Well, there’s just another mess we can blame on Dubya, now, isn’t it? After all, he’s the one who DIRECTLY shaped this new court (for the decidedly worse, I might add).

I’d also like to point out the two times Congress DID achieve a 40% rating occurred during Democratic controlled times with Republican presidents in hot water for some kind of corruption.  (Okay, that’s redundant…GOP presidents…some kind of corruption. Nixon, Reagan, current Dipshit…yep, they all fit that bill.)