Whatever they’re doing on Capitol Hill, keep up the great work! Congratulations, Pelosi. Congress under your leadership actually has a lower approval rating than Karl Rove and Dick Cheney. Rove beats you by 11%, Cheney by a full 21%. Now, considering how Think Progress treated Cheney’s previous 19% approval, do you think they’ll point out how low Congress’, too? Or will they brush it off? They’ve found time to spin the words of their very own political allies.Oh, so back to Congress’ dismal approval rating:

PRINCETON, NJ — A new Gallup Poll finds Congress’ approval rating the lowest it has been since Gallup first tracked public opinion of Congress with this measure in 1974. Just 18% of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing, while 76% disapprove, according to the August 13-16, 2007, Gallup Poll.

That 18% job approval rating matches the low recorded in March 1992, when a check-bouncing scandal was one of several scandals besetting Congress, leading many states to pass term limits measures for U.S. representatives (which the Supreme Court later declared unconstitutional). Congress had a similarly low 19% approval rating during the energy crisis in the summer of 1979.

The Congress’ responsible for gas rationing and scandals that led to the Republican Revolution, had the same or higher approval than the 110th. In December of 2006, after we lost control of Congress, the Republican-led legislative body had a 21% approval. That’s 3% higher than Pelosi, Reid, et all.

It’s the American public simply pissed off at the Republican obstructionism, right? That’s how it’ll be spun. Well, see, the numbers don’t back that up. Only 21% of Democrats approve of the job Congress is doing. 18% of Republicans and 17% of Independents approve.

So, where does Bush come out in all of this? At the end of the day, the President has a 32% approval rating – 14% higher than the Democrats.

“This leadership team will create the most honest, most open, and most ethical Congress in history”

-Speaker-Elect Nancy Pelosi, November 16, 2006