“This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer.” — Will Rogers

Poor ol’ Congress can’t catch a break. Last week a Rasmussen poll revealed that the percentage of voters who give Congress “good” or “excellent” marks plummeted into single-digit range (9 percent) for the first time since they’ve been asking about such things.

Most voters polled (52 percent) said that Congress is doing a “poor” job. Based on 1,000 phone calls, Rasmussen reported that the anemic “approval” numbers represent a drop from the previous month, when Congress earned a comparatively whopping 11 percent positive rating.  

Although I last studied statistics when my fellow citizen-scholars were smoking funny-looking cigarettes and streaking nude across campus, by my calculations, if this nosedive goes on much longer, Congress can expect to reach zero approval about the same time Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner are tripping over one another on the Capitol steps as they conduct their competing self-congratulatory news conferences ending the 110th Congress.

To put it mildly, this has not been a Hall of Fame year as far as congressional ratings go, with agitated voters coughing up nothing higher than a 15 percent approval rating since the beginning of the year.

And even though the Democrats control both the House and the Senate, there is little variance about the way the place is viewed by either Republican or Democrat voters.

The percentage of Democrats who give Congress a thumbs-up dropped from 17 percent to 13 percent between May and June, and although there is very little justification for bragging, the GOP numbers improved slightly during the same period, with 8 percent offering good or excellent ratings — up a precious point from the previous month.

When these impertinent questions are asked of people not affiliated with either political party, just 3 percent give Congress positive ratings, down from 6 percent last month.

In that same nonaligned group, 63 percent say Congress is doing a poor job, spiking up from 57 percent the previous month.

On the legislative front, Congress doesn’t fare much better. Just 12 percent of voters say Congress has passed any legislation over the past six months that improved their lives, with a large majority (62 percent) saying “nothing” passed that improves American life.  

A small footnote on the “improves American life” front: I am writing this column prior to the Tuesday debate and vote on H.R. 984 — expressing support for the designation of July 26, 2008, as “National Day of the Cowboy,” so those numbers might need to be adjusted by week’s end.

That last crack, of course, is an unfair cheap shot. A gotcha. A zinger. An out-of-context, skewed bit of reality that is just too good to pass up. Which now brings me full circle to where I want to be on this whole matter of congressional approval ratings.

That pathetic 9 percent “approval” rating for the Congress? Nonsense. I don’t believe it.

Oh, I am not accusing Rasmussen of fraud or anything. It’s much more complicated than that.

It’s just that Congress is a piñata — too easy a target to ignore without taking a potshot, especially when someone is standing there handing you a rhetorical gun with plenty of bullets.

This is a scenario that not only wisecracking political columnists welcome with gusto, but one we as a people also welcome, especially in a complicated, changing, globalized world that poses more question marks than exclamation points.

And especially when we are sought out by inquisitive, kind-hearted pollsters who are not only interested in what we have to say, but also give us permission to vent. And, brother, this summer we are primed and ready.

Gas prices over $4 a gallon. 401(k)s in the tank. Uncertain job market. Housing crisis. Devalued dollar. Iraq. Afghanistan. Plenty there to be agitated about.

So, when someone calls and asks us about Congress doing a good job? Wham! Bam! Zowie! Damn right! Somebody’s got to be blamed. It might as well be them.

Rasmussen went on to report that most voters (72 percent) think that most members of Congress are more interested in feathering their own political nests than are genuinely interested in helping people (14 percent).

So, with all this bottled-up steam ready to burst the electoral tanks, we can probably expect the “return rate” of incumbents running this fall to plummet all the way down to what? — 95? Maybe 96 percent? Maybe one more question to add to any of this summer’s polls.  

Q: “So, finally, will you be voting to reelect your current member of Congress?”
A: “Oh, sure! Love him. It’s the Congress I can’t stand.”

You can reach Jim Mills at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it