WASHINGTON - Only one-third of Americans give Congress good ratings for its ethics and honesty, according to an AP-Ipsos poll that found more evidence of the public's longstanding disdain for the legislative branch of government.
Investigations of two top congressional leaders have drawn more attention to Congress' low standings, though analysts say other factors such as the Iraq war and gas prices are likely contributors to the dip this year in Congress' ratings.
Almost half in the poll, 45 percent, give Congress poor marks for its honesty and ethics, and 21 percent said congressional ethics were neither good nor poor.
Congressional ethics have been in the spotlight recently with the probe of stock sales by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and the indictment of Texas Rep. Tom DeLay, former House majority leader, on charges of violating campaign finance laws. DeLay recently notified House officials that he has failed to disclose all contributions to his legal defense fund.
"Public opinion about Congress is at low ebb," said John Hibbing, a University of Nebraska professor and a co-author of "Congress as Public Enemy." But Hibbing said he doubts that recent news about Frist and DeLay are big factors.
"Congress always lags behind the other two institutions of government and most other institutions," he said. "People don't really like to hear about conflict about important decisions."
Just over a third in the poll, 35 percent, approve of the way Congress is handling its job — down from 44 percent in February, according to the poll of 1,000 adults taken Oct. 3-5. The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Why doesn't this surprise me?
Let's face it--our government is completely out of touch with reality. We've got a presidency that has lied to the American people for getting us into a war, then has broken the law in attempts to character assassinate critical opposition. We've had one sitting White House official indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice. The White House sings praise for this indicted official. We've had a president who tried to select a crony--his personal lawyer--to the Supreme Court--and such nomination was knocked down by his own party members in Congress. We've got one House minority leader indicted for money laundering, his replacement has been investigated due to his own relationship with an indicted lobbyist. We've got a Senate majority leader investigated by the SEC for insider stock trading. I've purposely left out names and party affiliations just to show this growing list of scandal and corruption. Is it no wonder that the American public is shooting down both branches of government--the presidency and the Congress--in the polls?
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