FROM CNN’s Jack Cafferty:

The 111th Congress convened in Washington today. The problems confronting the country are many… the economic crisis, energy, health care and climate change, among others.

Democrats control both houses, but Republicans are not without power, especially in the Senate. And there are disagreements among Democrats as well over such things as runaway federal spending, what to do about the automakers and the right policy when it comes to the use of fossil fuels.

The public is also skeptical. According to a new Gallup poll only 19-percent of Americans approved of the job the Democratic Congress did in 2008, one of the lowest scores on record.

By the end of the year Congress’ approval rating had risen from a low of 14 percent last July to 20 percent in December.

But overall, Americans remain dissatisfied with how things are going. And it’s a pretty safe bet that if Congress doesn’t improve on its past performance this time around, it will be a very short stay in our nation’s Capitol for many of them.

Here’s my question to you: When it comes to the economy, how much do you trust Congress to do the right thing?

Interested to know which ones made it on air?

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(PHOTO CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES)

FROM CNN’s Jack Cafferty:

Our Congress should be ashamed of itself.

Despite getting nothing done about the issues troubling millions of Americans – like energy costs, high gasoline prices, offshore drilling – Congress is going to take a month-long vacation starting tomorrow.

In the Senate, Republicans have been blocking any other legislation until they get a vote on drilling. And since the Democrats’ prospects seem pretty good for November, they don’t want to cave in to the Republicans’ demands to vote on drilling now, months before a new administration and Congress. To hell with what the public needs or wants…how can we turn the oil drilling issue into a political advantage for ourselves?

Iowa Republican Charles Grassley may have put it best when he called the Senate “constipated” and said it could use a good dose of laxatives.

If you’re tempted to vote for an incumbent this fall, remember this: Congress plans to be out of town until after the political conventions end, returning to Washington September the 8th. If Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid had any guts they’d cancel the vacation and keep Congress in session until some of these issues are resolved.

It’s no surprise the American people are disgusted with the whole lot of them. A new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll puts Congress’ approval rating at 22%. And that’s high. Other polls have the rating as low as 9%.

This poll also shows 76% of Americans say things are going badly in our country. Only three times in the past have Americans been so discouraged about the state of our affairs: Watergate, the Iran hostage crisis and the economic downturn of 1992.

Here’s my question to you: In light of its many accomplishments, does Congress deserve a month-long vacation?

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(PHOTO CREDIT: AP)

FROM CNN’s Jack Cafferty:

Here’s a pretty depressing statistic: Fewer than half of Americans approve of the job performance of all 3 branches of the federal government – President Bush, Congress and the Supreme Court.

A new Gallup poll puts President Bush’s approval rating near an all-time low of 30%, with some other polls showing his approval rating even lower. The all-time low for any president was 22% for Harry Truman in 1952.

Congress’ approval stands at a pathetic 19%, just a point better than last month’s 18%… which was the worst rating ever. Congress usually gets the lowest rating of all 3 branches of government, and with good reason.

As for the Supreme Court,48% of those surveyed say they approve of the job of the high court. That’s significantly higher than the president or Congress. But it’s still less than half, and the court has only measured a lower approval rating one other time.

It’s no surprise that Republicans rate President Bush much higher than Democrats or Independents… and Democrats give Congress slightly better marks than do Republicans.

But taken together these numbers show how fed up the American people are with the way Washington is currently operating. It’s not good news for incumbents in Congress who are up for re-election – that’s all the members of the House and one-third of the members of the Senate. And, Barack Obama and John McCain better take note; whichever candidate better understands what needs fixing down there in Washington will probably be the next president.

Here’s my question to you: All three branches of government are near historical low approval ratings. What will that mean for the election?

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(PHOTO CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES)

FROM CNN’s Jack Cafferty:

The House of Representatives has voted to send an impeachment resolution against President Bush to committee – where it’s likely to die.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich introduced the 35 articles of impeachment this week. Most of the resolution focuses on the Iraq war but also charges the president with illegally detaining both U.S. citizens and foreign captives, condoning torture and mishandling the response to Hurricane Katrina.

But Congress doesn’t want to hear it. They voted largely along party lines – 255 to 166 – to send the resolution to the House Judiciary Committee. This is exactly what happened to Kucinich’s impeachment articles against Vice President Cheney last year. Congress sent that resolution to this same committee in November. So far, no action has been taken. Congress continues to refuse to exercise its constitutional responsibility of oversight of the executive branch of government.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi long ago made it known that impeachment is “off the table.” This is a joke. We have a president who has abused the power of his office over and over again. It’s what got the Democrats elected to the majority in Congress in 2006. Now it’s election time again, and every member of the House is up for re-election in November. The Democrats are probably worried what it will look like to many voters if they spend time on impeachment.

Which is why Republicans voted yesterday to bring Kucinich’s resolution up for debate immediately – to make the Democrats look silly for focusing on this instead of gas prices, the economy, etc.

Here’s my question to you:What does it mean when Congress refuses to even consider 35 articles of impeachment against President Bush?

Interested to know which ones made it on air?

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FROM CNN’s Jack Cafferty:

John McCain peered into the future this morning… delivering a speech that looked ahead to what the U.S. and the world would be like in 4 years, after the first term of a McCain presidency.

Some of the highlights: he thinks the Iraq war will be won, Iraq will be a functioning democracy and violence there will be “spasmodic and much reduced.” McCain believes the U.S. will have welcomed home most of its troops. He thinks the threat from al Qaeda and the Taliban won’t yet be eliminated – even though bin Laden will be captured or killed. It’s a pretty bold move to lay out objectives like this – gives critics a lot to measure you against.

In any case, John McCain seems to be one of the few things Republicans have going for them this fall. After a string of GOP defeats in special elections, many are hoping that the maverick appeal of McCain will help other Republicans on the ballot. This is all kind of ironic, when you consider the Arizona senator has been at odds with his own party for years on issues like immigration, campaign finance reform and global warming.

But Republicans are facing a dismal scenario. One GOP congressman is calling this year’s political atmosphere “the worst since Watergate” adding “the Republican brand is in the trash can… if we were dog food, they would take us off the shelf.”

Some folks are predicting Republicans could come out of November with a 70 seat deficit in the House alone.

Here’s my question to you: Should Republicans facing congressional races in November run away from – or run with – John McCain?

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Click the play button to see what Jack and our viewers had to say.

FROM CNN’s Jack Cafferty:

All eyes on Capitol Hill were trained on baseball great Roger Clemens today as he denied using steroids.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, along with much of the national media, remained transfixed for hours while the award-winning pitcher insisted he never took steroids or human growth hormone.

If that’s true, it’s hard to explain an affidavit from Clemens’ former teammate and friend Andy Pettitte, who says Clemens admitted to him as long as 10 years ago that he used HGH. Also, Clemens’ former trainer Brian McNamee testified in those same hearings today that he injected the player 16 to 21 times with steroids and HGH between 1998 and 2001.

Let’s see, we have the subprime mess, the housing crisis, a possible recession, the war in Iraq, health care, Social Security, terrorism and this is what takes up our time – worrying about whether Roger Clemens used steroids a decade ago?

It’s good to see we have our priorities in order. A daytime made-for-tv dog and pony show put on by a bunch of irrelevant old congresspeople so they can get their faces on television. It’s no wonder a guy like Barack Obama is gaining traction.

Here’s my question to you: Does Congress have better things to do than worry about whether Roger Clemens used steroids 10 years ago?

Interested to know which ones made it on air?

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President Bush in the East Room at the White House, Thursday.

FROM CNN’s Jack Cafferty:

The American people are pretty much fed up with President Bush and Congress, according to a new poll.

The AP/Ipsos poll shows only 30% of those surveyed approve of the job the president is doing. This is worse than his previous overall low of 31% in this poll back in November.

Congress gets a pathetic 22% job approval. This ties their poorest rating in this survey from last October. Congress usually has lower ratings than the president. It’s an institution that people love to hate, and with good reason.

What stands out is even though the president is a Republican and the Congress is run by Democrats, the public can’t stand either one.

Both of these marks for Mr. Bush and the Congress have dropped by 4% points in just the last month. One of the main factors driving the public’s dissatisfaction is the economy. Many Americans are worried about a recession.

The irony in all this of course is that we will probably elect either a Democrat or Republican president in November, and many of the incumbent Republicans and Democrats in the Congress will be re-elected as well.

There are countries in the world that have overthrown their governments when they are disliked by as many people as ours is. But history suggests we will simply hold our noses in November and elect another version of our dysfunctional, broken government. Very sad.

Here’s my question to you: Is there anything President Bush and Congress can do before November to improve their image in the eyes of the American people?

Interested to know which ones made it on air?

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President Bush, meets with Congressional leaders to discuss the economy, Tuesday.

FROM CNN’s Jack Cafferty:

President Bush and congressional leaders are promising urgent action when it comes to a stimulus package to jump-start the economy.

But the truth is it may be too little, too late, and their definition of “urgent” may be quite different from that of the American people.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says senators are going to sit on their hands and do nothing until the House does something. Reid says when the House passes a bill and sends it to the Senate, they’ll address it “as quickly” as they can. Yesterday, Reid said their goal is to get a bill to President Bush by February 15th. That’s in three and a half weeks. In the last three weeks, the stock market has lost more than a thousand points.

What we’re getting is more government by photo op from our so-called “leadership.” Sit at a table, get your picture taken, then go out and mumble some platitudes about bipartisanship afterwards.

President Bush finally admitted the economy is in trouble a week ago — so the time between that and actually seeing some help for the economy could be at least a month.

In the meantime, people suffer, the markets dive, and our politicians talk. Where’s the urgency? It’s like they’re all reading “My Pet Goat” while the country falls into recession and the value of people’s investments, retirement plans and houses goes down the toilet. It’s worth remembering when we vote later this year.

Here’s my question to you: Why can’t the president and Congress move more quickly on an economic stimulus package?

Interested to know which ones made it on air?

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FROM CNN’s Jack Cafferty:

As the Los Angeles Times rightly sums it up, the Democrats’ “Yearlong campaign to bring the war in Iraq to an end concluded with a whimper yesterday as the Senate failed again to pass a timeline for withdrawing U.S. troops from the conflict.”

The House still has to approve this revised spending bill, with unrestricted war funds for Iraq and Afghanistan, but it seems likely to pass there with strong Republican support.

No, it’s not your imagination. As recently as last month, House and Senate Democrats vowed not to give President Bush any more money for the war in Iraq without withdrawal timelines. But the president threatened to veto the massive spending bill needed to keep the government running unless he got the war money. And the Democrats, lacking any backbone whatsoever, of course immediately surrendered. These people make the French look courageous.

Democratic Senator Russ Feingold offered the failed amendment that would have required the withdrawal of most U.S. troops within 9 months. He remained defiant, saying that nothing is more important to him or his constituents than “ending this disastrous war.”

But Republicans insisted that they were doing the right thing for the troops, and that Washington can’t ignore the military progress in Iraq.

Here’s my question to you: Should Congress have refused to pass funding for the war in Iraq without some timeline for troop withdrawals?

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FROM Jack Cafferty:

What a year it’s been. Here we are, a little more than a week to go before the Democratic-led Congress adjourns and they don’t have a heck of a lot to show for themselves.

First, House Democratic leaders caved into President Bush’s spending limit on a massive domestic spending bill. Although they’re vowing to shift funds away from the president’s priorities to theirs, it still signals a big political victory for the White House.

Next, what started out as an ambitious agenda a year ago has now been reduced to finger pointing between House and Senate Democrats.

The Washington Post reports Congressman Charlie Rangel is accusing Senate Democratic leaders of developing “Stockholm syndrome” — that they’re showing sympathy to their Republican captors and giving in on all sorts of legislation. He suggests if Republicans want to filibuster a bill, that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid should keep the bill on the floor and make Republicans talk it to death.

For his part, Reid says he “can’t control Speaker Pelosi”, that she’s a strong, independent woman who “runs the House with an iron hand.”

And, in case that’s not enough, there’s a possibility the government could actually shut down if some of this stuff isn’t resolved. It’s no wonder so few Americans approve of the job they’re doing.

Here’s my question to you: One year later, how would you rate the performance of the Democratic-led Congress?

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