Congress has suffered fromincreasingly lower approval ratings during the now eight-day long government shutdown, and on Tuesday we got some new comparisons to help put that into perspective. As new poll finds that Congress is less popular than hemorrhoids, potholes, and even dog poop.
Those are the findings of the latest survey from Public Policy Polling, which also found that Congress’s approval rating is a dismal 8%, with a whopping 86% of Americans disapproving of their work.
When asked which they had a higher opinion of, Americans picked all sorts of typically unappealing over those lawmakers working in Washington, including Wall Street, witches, zombies, jury duty, hipsters, the DMV, and the IRS. Cockroaches and toenail fungus also eked out a lead over the denizens of D.C., but not beyond the 4.4 point margin of error, so it’s safe to call those a tie.
But there is some good news for Congress, whose popularity manages to surpass Miley Cyrus. The pop star poked fun at Congress this past weekend when she impersonated Rep. Michele Bachmann in a raunchy spoof of the government shutdown on Saturday Night Live. However her dance of choice — twerking — turns out to poll a mere four points behind Congress, giving it another statistical tie.
What and who else turned out to be less popular than Congress? Vladmir Putin, Ebola, heroin. and former member of Congress Anthony Weiner all made the list. The pint-sized cultural phenomenon known as Honey Boo Boo also suffers from lower popularity numbers than Congress. (Although if you ask Robert Gibbs, shutdown-instigator Ted Cruz is the Honey Boo Boo of Washington.)
Morgan Whitaker