September 16, 2011

There's a new CBS News/New York Times poll out which confirms something many of us have known or suspected for years:  the voters are lot smarter than we think.        The basic finding is that more Americans than ever are dissatisfied with the way Congress works--just 12% approve.  Actually, that ties a previous low recorded in 2008.        Why?  That's easy.  It's partisan, impotent, useless.  What has it done?... (long, long pause.)        I can remember Congresses, when I started covering them years ago, that actually passed laws.  Some were divisive--the 1964 Civil Rights Act, for instance, or the '65 Voting Rights Act.  Some sparked filibusters.  But they passed.  I remember one of of this Congress's Senate leaders--I think it was Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican, saying his party's most important goal was to make Barack Obama a one-term president. Nothing to do with defense, or education, or any issue.  Just partisan politics.        That's the difference.