Buoyed by media’s narrative that Republicans will win control of Congress in November, GOP leaders in Congress are already measuring the drapes in the Capitol. The fact that 39 percent have never heard of Boehner — who is known in the Capitol for boozing, schmoozing and playing golf with lobbyists — offers Democrats the opportunity to define him as the old face of the “new” GOP.
If they do, it is looking increasingly unlikely that they will enjoy much, if any, of a honeymoon with voters after the 112th Congress is sworn in in January. One month ago, a Wall St. Journal/NBC poll found that congressional Republicans had just a 24 percent approval rating, the lowest rating it had received.
Now a new poll CNN Opinion Research [PDF] finds that House Minority Leader Boehner, R-Ohio, the next putative speaker, has a lower approval rating than the current speaker, Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
The poll found that Boehner has a 22 percent favorable rating, with a 23 unfavorable rating, while 39 percent have never heard of him and 16 percent had no opinion.
Speaker Pelosi has a 33 percent approval, and a 51 percent unfavorable rating, with just 9 percent saying they’d never heard of her and 7 percent saying they had no opinion.
The fact that nearly 40 percent said they’d never heard of Boehner is key to the Democrats’ strategy of making the midterm elections a choice between the Democrats — who, despite facing historic levels of obstructionism by Republicans, are making slow progress in solving the multiple crises created by the GOP during the 12 years it controlled one or both houses of Congress — or a return to Republican policies of the past that were designed to benefit corporations and the wealthy while putting the screws to the middle class.
The Democrats see an opportunity to define Boehner — who was the majority leader under the last GOP speaker and is known in the Capitol for being overly tanned and for boozing, schmoozing and playing golf with lobbyists — as the face of both the Bush-era anti-middle class GOP as well its latest obstructionist incarnation as the “party of no.”
In defining Boehner as the old face of the new GOP, the Democrats’ target group is independent voters with whom the Congress’ in ability to make progress is unpopular, but Boehner — the ultimate Washington insider — also has little appeal among tea party supporters. By identifying him to tea partiers as their party’s next speaker could also serve to depress voter enthusiasm within the GOP’s tea bagger base.
