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Opinion: Which way should Congress turn?

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It gladdens the hearts of Republicans -- understandably so -- that even as President Bush’s approval/disapproval ratings continue to flag,attitudes toward the Democratic-led Congress are even worse.

The new L.A. Times/Bloomberg poll, which can be examined here, is the latest national survey to detail this phenomenon. The survey found that 35% of registered voters have a favorable view of Bush’s job performance, 60% an unfavorable one.

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For Congress, meanwhile, the numbers are truly in the tank: only 22% approve of its job performance, 69% do not.

Another poll question, however, underscores the dilemma for lawmakers who would like to see those results improve. When voters were asked whether Congress should get tougher in dealing with Bush or more cooperative, the results offer nothing but confusion -- 33% said the folks on Capitol Hill support his political agenda too much, 37% said too little, 19% said the current approach was about right and 10% weren’t sure (1% simply refused to answer).

Talk about a split verdict!

Poll results released Wednesday focused on the Democratic and Republican presidential races; our analysis can be viewed here and here. The results released today concern opinions on the political debate over healthcare, and our story by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Janet Hook on that is available here.

-- Don Frederick

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