Public rates Congress little better than Bush

People think the Democratic-led Congress is doing just as dreary a job as President Bush after four months of bitter political standoffs that have made little progress on Iraq and on a host of domestic issues.

An AP-Ipsos poll also found that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is more popular than the president and her colleagues on Capitol Hill, though she faces a gender gap in which significantly more women than men support her.

The survey found just 35 percent approve of how Congress is handling its job, down five percentage points in a month. That gives lawmakers the same bleak approval rating as Mr. Bush, who has been mired at about that level since the fall, including his dip to a record low for the AP-Ipsos poll of 32 percent in January.

“It’s mostly Iraq” plus a lack of progress in other areas, said Rep. Tom Cole, Oklahoma Republican, who heads the House Republicans’ campaign committee. “These are not good numbers for an incumbent, and it doesn’t matter if you have an ‘R’ or a ‘D’ next to your name.”

Democrats agree that the problem is largely Iraq, which has dominated this year’s session of Congress while producing little more than this month’s presidential veto of a bill requiring the withdrawal of U.S. troops. They say it also has overshadowed House-passed bills on stem-cell research, student loans and other subjects that the White House opposes.

“People are unhappy; there hasn’t been a lot of change in direction, for example in Iraq,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, Maryland Democrat, chairman of the House Democrats’ campaign effort.

Rising gasoline prices also could be a factor, lawmakers said.

In another measure of popular discontent, the survey found that 71 percent think the country is on the wrong track — about even with the 73 percent who said so last May, the worst level since the AP-Ipsos poll began in December 2003.

The survey was taken Monday through Wednesday, before Mr. Bush offered to seek compromise with congressional Democrats over a war spending bill setting benchmarks for progress in Iraq.

Mr. Bush told reporters Thursday that if pollsters had asked his opinion about Iraq in the fall, “I’d have said I disapprove of what was going on in Iraq. They could have put me down as part of the disapproval process.”

That was before his decision to send nearly 30,000 additional troops to Iraq, which “would more likely cause me to approve of what’s going on in Iraq,” he added.

Overall approval of Mr. Bush was steady from last month but fell to 69 percent among Republicans, about seven percentage points below where it had been in April. Earlier this week, a group of moderate Republican House members warned Mr. Bush that the status quo in Iraq could mean Republican election losses next year.

Congress’ approval rating this week was 10 points higher than a year ago, when Republicans were in control.

However, after bumping up in April, this month’s drop left lawmakers’ job approval where it was when the year began. April saw Congress defy Mr. Bush and send him a bill financing the war and requiring a troop withdrawal, which he vetoed on May 1.

“People wanted change in Washington” on many issues, not just Iraq, said Rep. Rahm Emanuel, Illinois Democrat, a member of the House Democratic leadership. “I’m not surprised about where people are. They’re hearing only about Iraq.”

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