More bad news for the GOP: Americans hate Congress, but like Democrats

by: Jay Stevens

Sun Jul 22, 2007 at 13:55:23 PM MST

Instead of addressing the energy crisis, tax reform, securing the borders or even increasing production of U.S. oil to end America's reliance on foreign oil, Democrats have one agenda item: Putting Bush's head on a plate.

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Instead of debates, we get stunts like this week's all-night filibuster.

Instead of compromise, we get up-or-down votes without amendments.

Instead of tackling problems, we get hundreds of investigations into Bush.

Instead of civility we get Democratic Senate Leader Harry Reid of Nevada taking a below-the-belt verbal jab at Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and then making Specter wait 30 minutes to respond.

Democratic leaders want to do nothing. They want to portray Republicans as obstructionists and Bush as evil, in the hopes of securing the presidency in 2008 and a 60-vote majority in the Senate.

What planet does this guy live on?

People are p*ssed off because we're still in Iraq, we've still got crappy health insurance, we have to watch the richest in American reap all the benefits of a "growing economy," thanks to help from Republican government, while our tax rates rise, thanks to help from a Republican government. That's something that strategists on both sides agree on:

"The Democrats now own a share of discontent with national conditions, but it's a minority share. People still look to the White House and Republicans" as the people responsible for most of the discontent, said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

But don't believe me. Look at the respective parties' most recent favorability ratings, in which 52 percent of polled Americans had a favorable opinion of the Democratic party, as opposed to 38 percent for the Republican party.

But the truth isn't something that Don Surber, a Townhall blogger, is interested in. Quite the opposite. His goal with this screed is apparently to ensure the rank-and-file fealty to Our Great Leader. After all, Surber claims the danger of Democratic tactics is to "driv[e] down the public's confidence in the federal government..." as if that's something untoward or even dangerous. Attention, Surber: we shouldn't have confidence in our federal government! We should distrust them inherently, watch them like hawks, and hold them accountable when they break the law. I think that's something that even Dave Budge and I could agree on.

On similar note, Montana Headlines has plenty of praise for Mitch McConnell's recent Senate tactics in obstructing a solution for Iraq. It may be that McConnell has performed legislative acrobatics to protect his President from a Congressional majority and the will of a majority of Americans, but I don't know if I would be bragging about it. (In fact, McConnell's approval ratings back home in Kentucky have lowered enough to make him a Democratic target in 2008, in large part because of his unwavering support of the Iraq war.) I'm not sure what "values" McConnell is operating on here, other than loyalty to an unpopular, inept, and corrupt president, but he really should be using his prowress at Senatorial procedure in helping the country extract itself from the Iraqi morass. Instead, blood is on his hands.

The low approval ratings for Congress, and high favorability ratings for the Democratic party actually augurs more bad news for Republicans in 2008. It's pretty obvious that people are p*ssed off at Congress and realize that Republicans are to blame.