Take a look at this instapundit post. It makes me wonder if the man knows basic facts about American government. I remember that my grade 12 goverment textbook had a sidebar devoted to the Congressional approval rating. The most basic fact about it is that it tends to be extremely low, and as I recall there was a question on my grade 12 final to this effect. It's always been this way - take a look here, for example, which has data from the past 40 years (to spare you the clicking, it was 29% in 1966, 29% in 1978, 28% in 1990, 35% in 1996, and 38% today). It's one of those things about the American political psyche - we tend to think of Congress as slow, wasteful, uncoordinated, etc. Instapundit's endorsement of the link between Congressional approval and the "loss of faith in America's political class" highlights some basic ignorance on his part.