How I spent my summer vacation

Dear Congress,

I hope you are enjoying your summer vacation. We all need to get away once in awhile to relax, reflect, and rejuvenate ourselves. Have a good time. Make sure you wear your sunscreen and drink plenty of fluids. The sun can get pretty brutal, you know, with all that global warming and stuff.

Oh, one other thing - in case there are no newspapers or radio or TV or Internet where you are, I think you ought to know that oil has fallen over 20% since July. I know you and your majority will attempt to take credit for this, but all us bitter, gun-clinging people are not as dumb as you think we are.

Maybe it's just a coincidence, but didn't your arch nemesis in the Oval Office lift the executive ban on offshore drilling in July? I think he did. Yeah, I'm sure he did.

See, even if domestic drilling might not produce a significant amount of oil for 10 years or so, just the IDEA that we, the largest consumer of oil in the world, are one step closer to expanding our own oil discovery and production infrastructure, the stock market notices. Traders stop buying so many oil futures, since there may be a bigger supply of oil in the future and their contract purchases now might end up losing value. Simple Economics 101, Congress. Perhaps you ought to pick up a copy of Economics for Dummies while on vacation, and come back next month a little smarter and wiser than you are now.

Who knows? With a little more intelligence and action on your part, and you might actually be able to get your approval rating out of the single digits. Nine-percent is pretty lame, don't you think? Not only are you jeopardizing your own political hides and screwing the people you were elected to represent, but your 9% won't exactly help Wonder Boy in November.

People in glass houses...

"Nine-percent Nancy" throws a few stones, again...

WASHINGTON — President Bush has been a "total failure" in everything from the economy to the war to energy policy, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday.

In an interview on CNN, the California Democrat was asked to respond to video of the president criticizing the Democratic-led Congress for heading into the final 26 days of the legislative session without having passed a single government spending bill.

Pelosi shot back in unusually personal terms.

"You know, God bless him, bless his heart, president of the United States, a total failure, losing all credibility with the American people on the economy, on the war, on energy, you name the subject," Pelosi replied. She then tsk-tsked Bush for "challenging Congress when we are trying to sweep up after his mess over and over and over again."

However, according to a Rasmussen poll, Congress themselves isn't doing very well either. Democrats give Congress just a 9% approval rating, Republicans give Congress an 8% approval rating, and non-partisans give Congress a 3% approval rating.

Tuesday, July 08, 2008
The percentage of voters who give Congress good or excellent ratings has fallen to single digits for the first time in Rasmussen Reports tracking history. This month, just 9% say Congress is doing a good or excellent job. Last month, 11% of voters gave the legislature good or excellent ratings. Congress has not received higher than a 15% approval rating since the beginning of 2008.

Okay, Okay, I get it. Congress doesn't like President Bush. Many people don't. I, for, one, am not exactly thrilled with some of his policies, either. However, with their own approval ratings in the crapper, members of Congress on BOTH sides of the aisle ought to be a little more worried about their own job performance, rather than throwing stones at a man who will be out of office in six more months. With approval ratings this low, they may not be far behind.