Bush Still Clobbering Congress in Approval Ratings

A new Reuters poll shows that President Bush's approval rating is still a dismal 34 percent, but that's not bad compared to the 14 percent rating earned by the Reid/Pelosi congress:

In the national survey of 1,012 likely voters, taken July 12 through July 14, about 66 percent said Bush had done only a fair or poor job as president, with 34 percent ranking his performance as excellent or good.

That is up slightly from his low of 30 percent in early March and in line with other national polls showing Bush's approval ratings lingering at or near historically low levels amid continued chaos and bloodshed in Iraq.

But the marks for Congress, mired in gridlock over a series of partisan political battles after Democrats took power in the 2006 elections, continued to drop.

While 83 percent said Congress was doing a fair or poor job, just 14 percent rated it excellent or good. Last October, in its final days, the Republican-led Congress earned ratings of excellent or good from 23 percent of voters.

Although I would certainly be part of the 86 percent of people who disapprove of congress, I must admit that it's refreshing to have a congress so mired in conspiracy theories and meaningless investigations that it can't get around to passing a bunch of costly social programs. That's more than you could say for the last several Republican-led legislatures.