Here's a Surprise

From Rasmussen:

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. Most voters (52%) say Congress is doing a poor job, which ties the record high in that dubious category.

Maybe Crazy Nancy and Dingy Harry should finally unveil their big plans to lower the price of gasoline. That should give them a bump...or not.

JASmius adds: Highly unlikely.  Even though aggregate congressional approval ratings are buried lower than Bill Clinton's conscience, that same Rasmussen survey indicates the Donks nevertheless enjoy a twelve-point lead in the generic ballot.  Which, in practice, means about as much as the institutional approval number - IOW, absolutely zippo.  The latter is a cliche, and the former reflects polling bias and party identification more than actual likely voter intent.

The Dems know this, which is precisely why they have decided to duck the energy tempest and hope it blows over:

Democrats in Congress promised to make energy policy a high priority when they returned after the Independence Day break.  Instead, they have quietly scrubbed the schedule of any votes on their energy bill, afraid Republicans will make them vote on increased domestic oil production and force them to choose between popular sentiment for drilling and their environmentalist allies.

And why else have they gone into this rope-a-dope?

Before the break, Democrats heralded two bills that supposedly showed their leadership on energy: an anti-speculator measure and a “use it or lose it” bill that forced oil companies to drill on federal leases — whether or not they had found oil yet — or lose the leases immediately.  They attacked Republicans who opposed both bills as oil-company lackeys, but the truth is that neither bill produces a single drop of oil to solve the supply crisis. [emphases added]

And that, in the estimation of the Donk Politburo, appears to matter enough in PR terms to be sufficient deterrent against further anti-energy mischief-making for the time being, leaving the field open to (sigh) the Republican minority.  Better get the tall grass ready, 'cause there's yet another elephant stampede a-comin', right?

Not necessarily:

GOP senators believe that a number of moderate Democrats would be open to legislation that balances increased energy exploration with conservation. If they’re right, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) could lose their grip on energy policy, and the Republicans could score a major coup on the #1 issue on the minds of voters.

At least five Senate Democrats support more domestic oil and gas exploration, and McConnell is sweetening the deal to make the sale to other moderates: The Kentucky Republican is pushing a package of incentives to boost conservation as well as a measure creating stricter enforcement of commodities markets in exchange for more offshore oil and gas drilling.

I find the notions of boosting "conservation" and expanding regulatory control over commodities markets to be repugnant.  On the other hand, we ARE in the minority, and one of the plethora of reasons why is that we didn't muster the nads to push harder for drilling in a heckuva lot more areas than just ANWR when we did have power.  This dangling compromise offers the Dems most of what they claim to want in exchange for a sea change in the direction of American energy policy that alone can eventually solve, or at least ease, this energy "crisis".

One can see why the Dems want to deep-six McConnell's proposal.  It strips them naked and plops them smack in the middle of the national stage as the champions of runaway energy costs on behalf of the special-est (and most extreme) of special interests.  The Spockian adage all Trekkers know by heart is NOT "the needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many," after all.  That's the last thing False Messiah and Nora Desmond and Barney Fife need as the 2008 campaign nears the home stretch.

However, their brain-dead greenstremist fundamentalism may have taken the matter out of their hands, if the Politico piece's reference to the emergence an "energy gang of 14" is accurate.  How ironic would THAT be?  The same dynamic that destroyed the late GOP congressional regime arising to deal the same fate - or at least a 1998-esque one (i.e. failing to make the massive gains they expected) - to its despicable successor, in equivalently self-inflicted fashion.  As Big Sexy used to say, that's just "too sweeeeeeet!"

If Senator McConnell can flog this "rebellion" long enough, I would expect the Dems to cut their losses and grab the best compromise deal they can.  If Congress really is as unpopular as Rasmussen is indicating, they can't take the chance that their unresponsiveness to public demands for expanded domestic energy exploration will focus that unpopularity upon them.

Or, if gas prices drop back below four bucks a gallon, the issue'll go away long enough to get past the election, and they'll pretend it never happened - a sound strategy in our Short Attention Span Theater culture, and the outcome they're clearly banking on.

All the more reason for the GOP to make hay while the sun shines, even if it's all ultimately futile.  Might not make much difference in this go-round, but it can lay the foundation for 2010 and beyond.

Assuming, you know, that the public doesn't endorse a plebescite disbanding Congress and empowering President Hussein to rule by decree.  It'd give a whole new meaning to the phrase "Democratic Underground."