Have Nancy and Harry Fumbled the Ball?

The numbers are in from the latest poll conducted jointly by the Washington Post and ABC News, and they are not kind to the Congress. Here is the summary from Reuters:

Just 39 percent said they approve of the job Congress is doing, down from 44 percent in April. Approval of congressional Democrats dropped to 44 percent from 54 percent, according to the poll results.

Much of that drop was fueled by lower approval ratings of congressional Democrats among strong opponents of the Iraq war, independents and liberal Democrats, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

In April, Americans, by a 25-point margin, trusted the Democrats over U.S. President George W. Bush to handle the situation in Iraq. In the new poll, Democrats held their advantage but only by 16 points, the Post reported

Bush's job-approval rating stands at 35 percent, unchanged from April.

The idea that the Congress would not provide the White House with a "blank check" for financing the war in Iraq can be traced back to language that Nancy Pelosi used shortly after the current Congress began its session. At that time this seemed to indicate that both Pelosi and Senate Leader Harry Reid were determined to honor the will of the American electorate with regard to Iraq and probably with regard to the ineffectiveness of the preceding Congress. This poll seems to indicate that the recent Congressional action on funding the Iraq War is not honoring that will and that the American electorate is only too happy to let the pollsters know about it. In other words the voting public is becoming as unhappy with the Congress as they have been with the White House. This is reinforced by further numbers:

Seventy-three percent of Americans said the country is pretty seriously on the wrong track, the newspaper said.

Overall, 61 percent said the war in Iraq was not worth fighting, and nearly two-thirds said the United States is not making significant progress restoring civil order in Iraq, the Post said.

Fifty-five percent, a new high, said the number of U.S. military forces in Iraq should be decreased, but only 15 percent called for an immediate withdrawal, the report said

So much for the hope of the electorate that a new Congress might reflect their feelings! I just wonder how they will react to poor Russ Feingold, whose pessimistic assessment was not delivering a message that the American public particularly wanted to hear.