The low that caught my eye today, however, was the new Reuters/Zogby poll of presidential and congressional approval ratings. The Bush vs. Congress approval battle is turning out to be like one of those football games that matches two 0-10 teams at the end of the season. Someone has to win, right? Alas, politics is never as clear cut as football. It would be nice to see some elected officials get concussions once in a while though. Any kind of non life-threatening, season-ending injury would do, actually.
The current score in this stinker is: Bush 29-Congress 11. That's a statistical difference so stark even a victim of recent public education in America can see it. The president, tanking to a new all-time low, still manages to more than double up on Nancy Pelosi and her "mandate." Most of that 11% is probably made up of just congressional members themselves, their extended families and their staffs.
When it comes to running the country, Americans are telling Congress, "Just don't touch anything, you'll probably break it. Go play with each other and leave us alone." Of course, metaphorically, Congress has been playing with itself for a long time.
To their credit, Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi (D-USSR) and Harry Reid (D-Crab Nebula) have committed the full force of their resources to making sure the president doesn't pull "ahead" of them in this race to the bottom. If they drop just two more points they'll be in a dead heat with the remaining number of live brain cells in Ted Kennedy's (D-Corner Tavern) head. They know this and they're focused.
"We're not going to let you Republicans hijack this one from us," Reid was overheard saying to Larry Craig (R-Disgrace) in a congressional men's room last summer. Since then, Reid has maintained relentless pressure on sanity and common sense to achieve the historic lows.
Hey, sinking to the bottom wasn't in any of their campaign promises last fall but a lot of us knew they had it in them.
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