Ladies and gentlemen, I'll be brief. The issue here is not whether congressmen broke a few rules, or took a few liberties with their female party members - they did.  *wink*

But you can't hold a whole congress responsible for the behavior of a few, sick twisted individuals. For if you do, then shouldn't we blame the whole legislative system? And if the whole legislative system is guilty, then isn't this an indictment of our governmental institutions in general? I put it to you, Natalie - isn't this an indictment of our entire Homeland society? Well, you can do whatever you want to republicans, but we're not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of the Homeland.

You're not walking out on this one Mister!

You're finished!

No more MMFA!

You've bought it this time, buster! 

I surmise that the great "otter speech" could be adapted to any and all of the articles on MMfA today, and have half a mind to prove it.

Thankfully, the other half is the sane half, so I won't. 

This whole question of the popularity of congress, whether baed on parties or the institution, is asham.  We do not vote for congess.  We vote forspecific representatives.  The more accurate question would be how popular are individual congressmen in the eyes of their constituents.  Representatives have often run against congress, the institution, which could be equated with why popularity is low.  But sine individual congressmen are voted on, the changing values dealing with them would be more important.  

Bush-bashing? BUSH-BASHING?

When can we start? Can we hang Bungle from a limb, like a pinata? do I have to wear a blindfold? Is there a prize, or is the bashing its own reward? 

Should I bring my own bat, or is something standard furnished? Is there any plan for subsequent activities, such as Darth-bashing, Abu-bashing, Roberts-bashing, Alito-bashing, Scalia-bashing, Thomas-bashing, Goodling-bashing, Spakovsky-bashing . . .

Is it too late to enroll "The Hammer" Delay for bashing?

The Zogby question that seems to be so mysterious to MMFA (beatings for all of the research interns until performance improves) appears to be "Overall, how would you rate Congress' performance on the job?"  See: http://www.zogby.com/features/featuredtables.dbm?ID=155

I think a bigger question regarding the Zogby poll is some ambiguity in the possible responses.  Zogby rates a "positive" response as "excellent" or "good"; however, presumably, a negative response is "poor" or "fair".  Again, see the above link for the numbers.  I always thought fair meant "ehh...okay, I guess."  American Heritage Dictionary defines fair as "Moderately good; acceptable or satisfactory."  I'm thinking a lot of people who don't have a negative opinion of Congress may be responding "fair". 

Anyway, it really isn't the absolute numbers that are important; it is the trend in the poll, as the questions and possible responses are worded the same over time in a tracking poll.  As for the trends, the Post and Zogby tracking polls show the same results for Congressional performance: basically flat since the election.

It's a good thing to see the Dems pulling the same rock-bottom poll numbers as the Repubs did before the change in majority. It just shows the People are smarter than the politicians think they are. We're waking up to the truth, we're smelling the war crimes, we're following the money and we're seeing the barely-invisible hand of AIPAC ruling our foreign policy. The corporate media is losing the fight to keep our minds enslaved, we're not buying into the Ignorance Is Strength crap they sell.

Even more good news....Cindy Sheehan has declared she will run as an independent against that war criminal Pelosi in 2008!

The Dems are acting quite a bit like Republicans, and so shouldn't expect much in the poll numbers.

I'm just enjoying the desperation of the right wing media, that they're dying for congress to have low approval ratings as validation, somehow, that the GOP dominated bunch was great.

On another note, I wouldn't kick Morales out of bed for  misidentifying any  poll but mine.

Hi-Yooooo !