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Newly empowered Democrats draw wrath of voters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The new Democratic-led Congress is drawing the ire of voters upset with its failure to quickly deliver on a promise to end the Iraq war.

This is reflected in polls that show Congress -- plagued by partisan bickering mostly about the war -- at one of its lowest approval ratings in a decade. Surveys find only about one in four Americans approves of it.

"I understand their disappointment," said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada. "We raised the bar too high."

In winning control of Congress from President George W. Bush's Republicans last November, Democrats told voters they would move swiftly to withdraw US troops from Iraq.

But they now say voters must understand they need help from Republicans to clear procedural hurdles, override presidential vetoes and force Bush to change course.

Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware said he explained this recently to anti-war demonstrators. "'We know. We know,'" he quoted them as replying. "But we are so disappointed.'"

Biden, seeking the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, said: "Voters are going to be mad with us until we end the war."

House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said some Democrats understand "we can only do so much."

"Others are just very unhappy. I include myself among them," Pelosi, of California, told The New York Times.

Republicans have increasingly voiced their own concerns. Yet most have stood by Bush -- at least for now -- and given him the votes he needed to block timetables for withdrawal.

Republicans also are tweaking Democrats on other fronts, such as stalled efforts to upgrade health care and reduce the cost of college and energy.

'Do-nothing congress'

They are even adopting the same line Democrats once used against them, calling this "a do-nothing Congress."

"If Democrats fail to reverse course, the dynamics in the 2008 elections may shift significantly, allowing Republicans to run as the party of change ... only two years after Democrats successfully campaigned on that same theme," Senate Republican leaders told their ranks in a letter last week.

Just as it was before last year's elections, polls show most Americans believe the United States is headed in the wrong direction.

"The primary reason is war," said James Thurber of American University's Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies.

But there are other reasons. "People have problems in their lives and they don't see the White House or Congress dealing with it," Thurber said.

A Quinnipiac University poll this month found Congress with an approval rating of just 23 percent. "People voted for change. But they don't think they got it," said Peter Brown, an assistant director of the poll.

A Gallup poll last month put Congress's approval rating at 29 percent. The number had fallen to 21 percent last December, just weeks before Republicans yielded control.

Still, the new polls have stung Democrats and put them on the defensive.

Democrats point to the nearly daily congressional oversight hearings they have held into how Bush does business, many dealing with the war. They also note that unlike Republicans last year, they passed a federal budget plan.

But among Democrats' top legislative promises, just one, the first increase in the federal minimum wage in a decade, has been passed by Congress and signed into law by Bush.

Congress recently approved another priority -- a bill to expand federally funded embryonic stem cell research. But Democrats are not expected to be able to override a Bush veto.

On another high-stakes issue, top Senate Democrats and Republicans were struggling to pass legislation to overhaul US immigration laws, despite attacks from many conservative Republicans and some liberal Democrats.

Democrats intend to crank up pressure on Bush with votes on proposals to revoke Congress' 2002 authorization of the war, set a deadline for troop withdrawals and increase requirements for troop readiness. Republicans will likely block them.

"We're disappointed the war drags on with no end in sight, but realize Democratic leaders can only accomplish what they have the votes for," said Brad Woodhouse of Americans United for Change, a liberal group active in the anti-war movement.

Pelosi and Reid wrote Bush last week urging him to listen to the will of people on Iraq. "Work with us," they pleaded.

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wkllaw

People shouldn't raise others expectations of them to somewhere unrealistic.

__________________
Those who can't change become extinct.

gunnut

Democrats need to understand one thing. They didn't take over the Congress because people like them. They took over because people wanted to send a message to the Republicans.

Democrats continue to shoot themselves in the foot. They complain about gas prices and their fix is to add a new tax to the oil companies. Their fix for anything and everything is to tax, spend, regulate.

__________________
"Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

ChrisF202

Couldent have said it better Gunnut, they think everything can be solved by more taxes, more laws and more federal government involvement.

gunnut

Have you ever noticed one thing? They love taxes and regulations to solve problems, yet they never tax and regulate the poor. Logically, tax and regulate the poor will make their number decrease.

Imagine, the less you make, the more government takes away. That should motivate you to make more in a big hurry.

astralis

gunnut,

or it could drive you to desperation and brigandage and the weakening of state power, as happened when regressive taxes were instituted in the byzantine empire and han china.

__________________
Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.

-Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

gunnut

So what you're saying is that we should have a flat tax or a "pay as you go" sales" tax...

PowerPoster

The only thing the Democrats can raise is taxes.

dalem

And my blood pressure.

-dale

Parihaka

I'm sure I read somewhere that the Democrats had a list or pledge card of things they were going to accomplish in one hundred days...
Anyone know how that's going?

__________________
In the realm of spirit, seek clarity; in the material world, seek utility.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

astralis

gunnut,

actually, i'd like that very much. we should ideally get rid of the income tax and replace it with a larger sales tax. it would make a lot more economic sense.

astralis

powerposter, dalem,

sucks to be you guys. i know some younger female dems that can raise something else altogether.

dalem

Your midichlorian count?

-dale

Bluesman

It would also bethe ultimate in regressive taxation, a term Democrats hate almost as much as 'military spending'.

__________________
"The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it, and if one finds the prospect of a long war intolerable, it is natural to disbelieve in the possibility of victory."
- George Orwell

Bluesman

Absolute goose-egg. I mean NOTHIN', baby.

In a recent poll of Americans and their approval of various American institutions, Congress scored the lowest ever recorded: 14% approval. The military scored highest, a still-robust 69%.

I guess harry reid should watch who he calls 'incompetent'.