America Hearts Congress

Well, sort of. 44 percent approve and 54 percent disapprove. That sounds bad until you add context. The 108th Congress, serving in 2005-2006, had its highest approval number at 43 percent and its lowest disapproval number at 53 percent. So people like the Democratic congress better than they like the Republican one. 44/54 is also considerably better than the 35/62 approve/disapprove split Bush gets. Indeed, fully 49 percent of respondents say they strongly disapprove "of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president" -- Bush Derangement Syndrome has gone mainstream.

Nancy Pelosi, however, is much more popular than either Bush or Congress generically -- earning a 53/35 approve/disapprove split. Ever since she became the top House Democrat, the DC press corps has been insisting that Pelosi is an unpopular figure whose bad for the Democrats. This because she's the most robustly liberal person we've seen in high elected office in over ten years. The evidence, however, doesn't bare this theory out. In the spring of 1995, Newt Gingrich's approval numbers were in the thirties.