The 9-Percent

"Approval of Congress Matches Record Low," Allison Kopiciki, NY Times Caucus blog, 9/16/11. "Congress faces historically low approval ratings as it wades into the debate over the $447 billion jobs package proposed by President Obama, with just 12 percent of Americans now approving of the way Congress is handling its job, matching its all-time low... Only 6 percent of registered voters say that most members of Congress have earned re-election, while 84 percent say it’s time to give someone new a chance, a historic low for the New York Times/CBS poll. Dissatisfaction with Congress runs deep across both parties, with more than 8 in 10 of both Republicans and Democrats saying it’s time to elect new representatives" (emphasis added).

I would like to know where they found the 9% who approve? People who have been comatose for the past six years? Clones of Grover Norquist, ideologically ecstatic that government has now ceased to function?

First Congress punted the job of fiscal reform to the "super committee," and now the "super committee," has gone exactly...nowhere. We have a failure of leadership. And that is not on Congress, but reflects the delusions and divisions in society - and our willingness to elect the same failed representatives again and again and again.

In New Jersey we just elected our state legislature. Despite a small number who were challenged by redistricting, NO incumbents failed to be reelected, not one. Something is wrong with that picture.