{"id":4170,"date":"2005-05-10T13:50:28","date_gmt":"2005-05-10T17:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/4170.html"},"modified":"2005-05-10T13:50:28","modified_gmt":"2005-05-10T17:50:28","slug":"and-we-owe-it-all-to-tom-delay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/and-we-owe-it-all-to-tom-delay\/","title":{"rendered":"And we owe it all to Tom DeLay"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new Gallup poll<\/a> is out reflecting public opinion of Congress. I think it’s fair to say the institution has seen better days.<\/p>\n

These are not good days for Congress. The latest Gallup survey shows that only 35% of Americans approve of the way Congress is handling its job, and almost 4 in 10 say most<\/i> Republicans and, separately, most<\/i> Democrats in Congress are unethical. When asked about members of Congress going on a trip funded by a lobbyist, an action that has caused House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to come under severe criticism and possible investigation by the House ethics committee, more than 8 in 10 say it is at least a “moderately serious” ethical problem.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Overall, 35% of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing, while 57% disapprove. It’s the worst numbers for Congress in about eight years. It’s not just partisan — just under half of the nation’s Republicans (49%) support the way the Republican-led Congress is operating.<\/p>\n

Tom DeLay, whose scandals have no doubt contributed to Congress’ decline in popularity, has even more cause for concern. A plurality of Gallup respondents (38%) have an unfavorable opinion of him, which is an all-time high for DeLay, while the number of people who say they’ve never heard of him has dropped to an all-time low (22%). The scandals, in other words, are taking their toll.<\/p>\n

As for DeLay’s “predicament,” a combined 82%<\/i> said it was either “moderately” or “very” serious if a member of Congress goes on a trip paid for by a lobbyist. DeLay, of course, has done this repeatedly.<\/p>\n

How long, do you suppose, will the Republican congressional caucus consider the status quo acceptable? The public isn’t satisfied with what they’re seeing, they think lawmakers are corrupt, and they strongly disapprove of the Majority Leader and his behavior. Keep up the good work, guys!<\/p>\n

Yes, Dems didn’t fare too well in the Gallup results either, but this is symptomatic of a public that desperately wants change and isn’t fond of incumbents. Remind me, which party is running the government these days?<\/p>\n

If only the mid-terms weren’t 17 months away….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new Gallup poll is out reflecting public opinion of Congress. I think it’s fair to say the institution has seen better days. These are not good days for Congress. The latest Gallup survey shows that only 35% of Americans approve of the way Congress is handling its job, and almost 4 in 10 say […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4170\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}