AMERICANS WONDERING WHY THERE IS NO LEMON LAW FOR ELECTED OFFICIALS-- BUSH'S POLL NUMBERS WORST EVER ACROSS THE BOARD

For the Bush-Cheney dead-enders, and especially for George W. Bush himself, every day brings more news of rejection and failure. As the Only Ones used to sing (slightly paraphrased) another day, another poll. And none bring good tidings. The latest, from ABC News and the Washington Post comes out on the eve of Bush's State of the Union and clearly shows him "at the weakest point of his presidency, with dissatisfaction over his Iraq war policies continuing to rise and confidence in his leadership continuing to decline... With a major confrontation between Congress and the president brewing over Iraq, Americans overwhelmingly oppose Bush's plan to send an additional 21,500 troops to the conflict. By wide margins, they prefer that congressional Democrats, who now hold majorities in both chambers, take the lead in setting the direction for the country rather than the president."

This weekend's news from Iraq, with huge casualties for American troops including an attack in one of Bush's "secure zones" (in Karbala) that saw the slaughter of unsuspecting and undefended Americans, is sure to further alienate public opinion from the Bush-McCain escalation plans.

The poll shows that the public trusts the Democratically controlled Congress to deal with Bush's Iraq catastrophe instead of the Bush Regime-- 60% to 33%. Only 26% of the country now thinks the nation is going in the right direction and Bush's overall approval rating is a dismal 33%, his lowest since taking office and over half the respondents strongly disapprove of his job performance, the first time that has happened since the Supreme Court installed him in the White House over the wishes of the voters. Republican Congressman Walter Jones (NC) predicted on CNN that Bush's approval will soon sink into the 20s. (UPDATE: Maybe Ms. Cleo gave Jones a tip-off. He was right!)

And while 40% are still deluding themselves into thinking Bush is honest and trustworthy, only around a third think he understands the problems of people like themselves. "Just 42 percent say he can be trusted in a crisis, with 56 percent saying he cannot-- the first time a majority has given him a negative rating on a crucial element of presidential leadership. Only 45 percent call him a strong leader, which is also the lowest mark of his presidency. His previous low, 47 percent, came two months after Katrina ravaged New Orleans and the Gulf Coast... And 55 percent of Americans now say the president has not made the country safer, the first time a majority of the country has reached that conclusion."

Meanwhile Americans are much more impressed with Speaker Pelosi as a leader than with Bush. Despite the constant and vicious attacks from political gnats like Rep. Howdy Doody (R-FL) and the Republican Noise Machine, 54% of Americans approve of the way she is doing her job, far better than Gingrich ever achieved when he was Speaker after the Republican landslide of 1994. "Democrats generally receive positive marks from the public, at least relative to the president. By better than 2-1 (57 percent to 25 percent), Americans prefer Democrats to set the direction for the country. And by similar margins, the public trusts Democrats in Congress over Bush to deal not only with Iraq, but also with terrorism, the economy and the federal budget... Nearly nine in 10 Americans in this poll support raising the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour (half of supporters would like it higher still), eight in 10 think Medicare should be able to negotiate prescription prices with drug companies and a majority, 55 percent, supports a loosening of restrictions of federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. These were three of the six core components of Democrats' "100 Hour Legislation." These are legislative initiatives that Bush has promised to veto and that Mitch McConnell and his right wing die-hards in the Senate have promised to undermine and destroy.

Meanwhile Old Line Democratic pols, many of whom show signs of never having left the Beltway Bubble in several decades, are squandering this opportunity to rescue America from the BushCheney agenda. Timid and careerist, hacks like Biden and Levin and banking on an utterly meaningless nonbinding symbolic resolution to tell Bush they don't like what he's doing. He has already told them he doesn't care what they say. These pathetic "leaders" have long forgotten how to play offense and can barely muster the cajones to play effective defense.