Poll: DC is a mess

March 7, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON

Washington has its moments when the nation’s capital shines for all the world to see. Inaugurations. the Fourth of July.

This isn’t one of them.

Recent days instead have shown Washington at its worst. An ethics mess in the House of Representatives, even in its ethics committee. A nasty fight over spending in the Senate with the two major parties scrambling for political advantage rather than helping Americans in need.

The White House exploding in leaks and back- stabbing over who’s to blame for the failures of President Barack Obama’s first year. Lobbyists flooding the capital to stop financial revisions. One senator, Ben Nelson, D-Neb., holding up the health-care overhaul to get special terms for his state. Another, Richard Shelby, R-Ala., blocking 70 presidential appointees to get help in getting projects for his state.

The result? Four out of five Americans say Washington is so caught up in its own political intrigues that it can’t even begin to fix the nation’s big problems.

“Washington looks totally dysfunctional right now. They can’t seem to get even the most basic problems solved or even addressed,” said Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster. “It looks paralyzed by gridlock, by partisan sniping. And the country’s fed up with it.”

A new McClatchy-Ipsos poll underscored the sentiment, with 80 percent of Americans saying that Washington is broken and unable to function. The survey also found that those Americans who blame either party are pretty evenly split over whether to blame the Democrats or the Republicans.

There’s little doubt, however, that public dismay at all this is fueling the rise of “tea party” rage, Sarah Palin populism and even Jon Stewart’s mordant comic commentary on current events.

The Democrats, of course, vowed to change Washington. Obama in 2008 promised a post-partisan politics and a Washington that would do the people’s business in the open, unbowed by lobbyists. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in 2006 promised an era of bipartisanship once her party took control of Congress, and “the most honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history.”

It doesn’t look that way right now.

The House ethics committee late last month admonished Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and one of the top Democrats in Congress, for taking corporate-financed trips to the Caribbean. Within days, he had to step down from his committee post at the very moment it should be at the center of important national issues.

Further, the Senate was tied up for days when Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., tried to force it to cut spending on one program to pay for new spending on other urgent priorities, such as extending unemployment benefits.