Congress takes public opinion pounding

Congress returned to town this week with its poll ratings even lower than President Bush’s. That’s because nearly all the public ever sees is congressional leaders fighting and accomplishing nothing.

But that’s not a completely accurate picture. By the time Congress adjourned for the August recess, it actually had racked up some legislative accomplishments that voters didn’t appreciate.

So perhaps a fair grade for the 110th Congress so far would be an F for style, a C-plus for effort and an Incomplete for quality of achievement. There is plenty of room for checking the box “shows improvement.”

What Congress has accomplished this year came in two bursts — the first “100 hours,” when the House pushed through much of its promised “Six in ’06” agenda, and the final 100 hours or so last month, when both the House and Senate processed a bevy of legislation.

In between, what occurred was five months of nearly nonstop ugliness — failed Democratic efforts to stop the Iraq war, a fractious and futile fight over immigration reform, vengeful exercises of legislative oversight designed to discredit the Bush administration, and shouting matches between majority Democrats and minority Republicans.

Even the pre-adjournment legislative push was clouded over by a raucous late-night dust-up over a thwarted House GOP move to deny benefits to illegal immigrants that made for great television, doubtless reinforcing the public’s impression of a Congress in total disarray.

It’s not a complete misimpression. Partisan wrangling is the dominant activity of this Congress. It makes a mockery of the fervent proclamations by leaders of both parties in January that they understood voters’ dismay with endless, needless point-scoring and the desire that Congress solve their urgent problems.

Congress’ failure to make problem-solving its dominant activity accounts for its low public esteem. Polls on public approval of Congress average 22 percent, compared with 33 percent for Bush. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showed that only 14 percent have confidence that Congress will do the right thing.

But Congress has done some things right this year. Notice should be taken of them.

One unappreciated accomplishment was overwhelming passage of a $43 billion program designed to bolster America’s competitiveness by doubling its scientific research budget and training more scientists and linguists.

Other bills passed and sent to the president this year include an increase in the minimum wage, lobbying and ethics reform and homeland security enhancements fulfilling the recommendations of the presidential 9/11 Commission.

Also on the list, but the subject of ongoing partisan division, was last-minute legislation authorizing the government to conduct no-warrant intercepts of electronic communication between two overseas parties when the messages pass through a server in the United States.

Meanwhile, some of the claimed accomplishments of the Democratic Congress are less than stellar. Energy bills passed by both chambers fall far short of setting the nation on a path to independence. Neither contains a gasoline tax, encouragement for nuclear power or provisions to expand America’s electricity grid.

The prospect is for more congressional combat with Bush, largely over spending and Iraq. The country will be lucky to avoid government shutdowns as the two sides trade charges that the other is fiscally irresponsible.

And a flurry of progress reports on Iraq is only stimulating new rancor, despite widespread underlying agreement that troop withdrawals need to be gradual and responsible.

Congress and the Bush administration ought to resolve to improve their public esteem not at each other’s expense, but by seeking agreement in the public interest. Admittedly, the chances are slim.

Morton Kondracke is executive editor of Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill.