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By Stephen Collinson
In fewer than six months, the
Democratic-led US Congress has pulled off an unlikely trick,
becoming even less popular than President George W. Bush, polls
show.
As Republicans and Democrats
bicker in the House of Representatives, and the Senate meanders
along, Congress seems to voters to be getting little done, slowly.
According to a new Gallup poll
released Thursday, just 14 percent of Americans had a great deal, or
quite a lot of confidence in Congress—the venerable
institution’s lowest rating ever recorded by the polling firm.
The Gallup poll found US
confidence in the presidency stood at 26 percent, while Bush’s
personal job approval ratings in the same poll sat at 32 percent.
Bush’s ratings, deep into his
second term, have been dragged down by the war in Iraq and political
scandals rattling his administration.
A Newsweek poll Thursday also
showed Congress’s ratings in the tank, with just 25 percent of
Americans approving of the job lawmakers were doing. Bush emerged
ahead by this measure, by a single percentage point.
“The American people are upset
at us, Democrats and Republicans because we are not getting things
done,” said Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on
Thursday.
Apparently alarmed by public
perceptions, Democratic Senate leaders Thursday took reporters to
task for failing to tell what they see as the real
story—Republican delaying tactics clogging up progress.
“The Republicans have been
successful in slowing us down and stopping the bills we want to take
up,” said Democratic Majority Senate whip Dick Durbin.
“This is a real story.”
Just before midnight on Thursday,
however, there was better news for Democrats, in one of the
Senate’s most significant actions of the year.
The party forced passage of a
comprehensive energy bill that raises average auto fuel efficiency
standards, in a bid to protect the environment and tackle rising gas
prices.
Democrats, helped by two
independents, grabbed control in the Senate in elections in November
with a 51-49 margin, enough to hold power, but not enough to wield
it effectively.
In the Senate, the ruling party
needs 60 of the 100 votes in the chamber to move legislation towards
final votes, and to overcome delaying tactics.
Democrats found themselves locked
in wrangling with their foes over the energy bill and a sweeping
immigration reform measure which stalled two weeks ago but may be
returned to next week.
They have also angered their
supporters. Reid admitted last week that Democrats raised the bar
too high in giving the impression that they had the power to halt
the Iraq War.
Last month, Bush forced Democrats
to strip troop withdrawal timelines from a new $100-billion
emergency spending bill for the war, leaving Democrats to be savaged
by their grass roots antiwar supporters.
Republicans, stung by losing both
the House and Senate in November, immediately blamed Democrats for
Congress’s slumbering ratings.
“It’s pretty clear to us, and
I think it’s becoming increasingly clear to the American people,
that there’s a real crisis in leadership on Capitol Hill because
nothing is getting accomplished,” said House Minority Leader John
Boehner.
Republicans privately say,
however, they are worried that there is little for them to gain
politically from the public’s sour mood.
More Republican incumbent
senators are up for reelection in 2008 than Democrats, leaving them
with a tough task in their bid to grab back control of the Senate.
And many Republicans have found
themselves tied closely to their president on the Iraq War—which
polls show is opposed by a majority of Americans.
House Democrats argue they have
passed a sheaf of government spending bills and raised the minimum
wage in the United States.
Democratic leaders in both
chambers say that they have restored the congressional function of
oversight, especially on Iraq.
 --AFP
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