US Shutdown Day 8 Race to the Bottom

As the government poker game continues, everyone is keeping an eye on the poll results to see who might hit bottom first.

Republicans in Congress have seen disapproval of their handling of the shutdown negotiations spike from 63 percent at the end of last month to 70 percent in the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll released on Monday.
Republican handling of the fiscal showdown is the worst in Washington by far. Only 24 percent said they approve of how GOP lawmakers are handling the budget negotiations, down from 26 in the same poll from Sept. 29.

Democratic handling of the negotiations is also wildly unpopular. Thirty-five percent said they approve of Congressional Democrats, against 61 who disapprove. That’s up from 34 percent approval and 56 percent disapproval in September. While a majority of the public disapproves of the way President Obama has handled the fiscal negotiations, he’s seen his approval rating tick up. In September, only 41 percent said they approved of the job the president was doing, against 50 who disapprove. In the latest poll, 45 percent said they approve, against 51 who disapprove.

Former Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine), a centrist Republican who compiled a long record of working with both sides of the aisle, said most voters will view the Tea Party as responsible for the crisis.
But she said Obama and GOP leaders will also be held to account for not intervening to stave off what she called a “belligerent minority.” 
Snowe said it is not legitimate for Republicans to insist on using the stopgap spending measure or debt limit to make a major policy change, such as defunding or delaying ObamaCare.
“If they want to try it through the normal legislative process, then obviously that’s their right,” she said. “To condition it on the basis of the operations of government or on our full faith and credit as a nation at a time we’re beholden to foreign investors, it’s not even realistic.”