Randy Kuhl's Veterans' Mental Health Caucus rates a skeptical editorial from the Messenger-Post, hometown paper for the Canandaigua VA center specializing in psychiatric care. Nut graphs:
An honest discussion of troops’ mental health begins with the decision to engage in two long-term occupations halfway around the globe with an all-volunteer military and continues with the wait and red tape to get services once they return. We hope this is not a broader task than the members of Kuhl’s House caucus had bargained for.
Awareness is fine, but conviction and action would be more appropriate here.
Reader Elmer sends a link to a Rasmussen poll showing that the approval rating of Congress is now in single digits.
Any Republican reading that poll should be worried, because Democrats have not been in control for very long. Though Republicans are definitely spinning each and every problem as the fault of the newly-elected Democrats, most of what we're reaping today was sown before Democrats took over last year. That said, any Democratic challenger reading the poll should conclude that running against the system, which includes opposing some current Democratic positions in Congress, is a smart move.
Update: I missed this earlier, but despite the 9% overall Congressional approval rating, Democrats still have a 12% lead in Rasmussen's generic Congressional ballot question.
Comments
Speaking of psychology, it's interesting that the administration gets such comparatively high numbers. It's as though Bush/Cheney is the dad and congress is the mom. He can act and she can only use persuasion. The Republican congress blindly supported him. The Democratic congress weakly protests. But it's too scary to for the authoritarians among us to give up on Dad.