Does This Make Me an Ethics-er? Or a Corruption-er?

How can it be? After 8 years of the Bush Administration and EVERYTHING that they did wrong, how could we, a mere 9 months after President Obama stepped into office, have reached the point where Parties Nearly Tied for Congress in 2010. Could it be that the reason the American people are opposing Obama’s health care, when they claim to actually want health care reform, is for the same reason? And is it too far fetched to think that the reason just might have to do with ethics and corruption?

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“The Republican Party’s relatively strong position on the generic ballot in the latest poll, conducted Oct. 1-4, stems from the support of political independents, who now favor Republican over Democratic candidates by 45% to 36%.”

And worse yet for the Democrats, the Rasmussen polls gives the edge to Republicans this week in their latest edition of the Generic Congressional Ballot:

43% would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate while 39% would opt for his or her Democratic opponent.  Support for Democrats fell two points over the past week, while support for the GOP rose by one point.

Looking back one year ago, support for the two parties was strikingly different. Throughout the summer of 2008, support for Democratic congressional candidates ranged from 45% to 48%. Republican support ranged from 34% to 37%.

But are the Republicans really looking better? Or could it be related to this Rasmussen poll on what issues Americans feel are Very Important?

83% now view government ethics and corruption as very important, placing it just ahead of the economy on a list of 10 key electoral issues regularly tracked by Rasmussen Reports.

Survey of 1,000 Likely Voters
September 26-29, 2009

Issue Very Important

83% Gov’t Ethics/Corruption
82% Economy
73% Health Care
67% Nat’l Security/War on Terror
65% Social Security
62% Taxes
59% Education
49% War In Iraq
49% Immigration
41% Abortion

Could it be that the American people have seen enough proof from both parties (anybody have a list?) to confirm the explaination from Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) that ‘Many members’ of congress suffer from disclosure problems like Rep. Charles Rangel (D.N.Y.).

From The Hill:

“I want to tell you, there are many members who, if you go back over all of their records, over all of the years, you’re going to find that there were disclosures that were not made,” Waters said during an appearance on MSNBC Wednesday morning.

“What happens is, unfortunately with the requirements for disclosure that we all have, mistakes are made,” she said. “And you do get a chance to correct them. And so it looks as if he is correcting those mistakes.”

And if we are not at all surprised to learn that Charlie Rangel retains Ways and Means gavel does that mean we are happy?

Democrats easily rebuffed another Republican attempt to remove Rep. Charles Rangel from his chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday. But there was a small sign of eroding support for the embattled New York Democrat: Mississippi’s two House Democrats voted against him.

Congressional ethics investigations are notoriously opaque and can often take months to complete, which is why Republicans are frustrated with the Rangel situation. But the chairman continues to have the full backing of Democratic leaders.

“We will await that [ethics] report,” Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland said Wednesday. “Prior to that, any actions making reference to Chairman Rangel would be premature.”

Could this Gallup poll further explain why this summer so many Americans revealed their deep seated, secret preference for tea:

Americans’ approval of the job Congress is doing is at 21% this month, down significantly from last month’s 31% and from the recent high of 39% in March.

…significantly below the average 36% rating found across the past two decades. …The current drop in overall job approval to 21% particularly reflects a substantial drop in approval among Democrats, whose 36% rating this month is 18 points lower than last month’s 54%, and the lowest since January of this year.

…the steep decline in approval among Democrats, who appear to be souring on the job Congress is doing despite the fact that their party controls both the House and the Senate. For the first time since February, Democrats’ approval of the job Congress is doing is below 50% – with only slightly more than a third of Democrats now approving.

And what does it mean when the American people are no longer shocked to hear these words of confirmation from Special Inspector General of TARP, Neil Barofsky:

The Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve lied to the American public last fall when they said that the first nine banks to receive government bailout funds were healthy

“The fact that here we are a year later and treasury still refuses to require those financial institutions to tell us the investor, the taxpayer, how they are using the TARP money.”

And wouldn’t that help to explain this Rasmussen Poll:

43% of voters say the president is doing a poor job addressing government ethics and reducing corruption, up five points from early September and the highest level measured since he took office. Forty percent (40%) now give the president good or excellent ratings on his handling of the issue.

And maybe it explains this Quinnipiac poll also:

On the negative side, voters don’t believe 71 – 19 percent that Obama can keep his promise that health insurance reform will not add to the federal deficit, down from 72 – 21 percent disbelief August 5. Even Democrats believe 50 – 32 percent that health insurance reform will add to the deficit.

And why American Voters Oppose Obama Health Care Plan

American voters oppose 47 – 40 percent President Barack Obama’s health care reform plan and … 
“overwhelmingly see the Republican opposition as not making a good faith effort to cooperate with Obama and the Democrats in Congress on health care and by a smaller 46 – 41 percent margin feel the Democrats are not playing fair with the Republicans,” said Brown. “They trust Obama more than congressional Republicans on health care. Yet there is no groundswell of support of his health care plan itself.”

Okay. So am I the only one seeing an ethics/corruption connection here for politicians? And does this make me an Ethics-er or a Corruption-er?

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[also posted at No Quarter]