Quotes of the Day

If the President feels bad about the nation's opinion of him—a meager 25% of those surveyed in a June Gallup poll approve of Bush's performance—all he needs to do is pick up that same poll and keep reading. According to Gallup, just 14% of people express confidence in the current Congress. That's the lowest measure in the 34 years Gallup has been tracking government institutions.

Given that the Democrats took control of Congress just six months ago—surfing into power, in part, on a wave of dissatisfaction with Republicans—it's worth asking: how on earth did this Congress become so loathed so quickly?

Democrats won the house on a platform of change, but after six months voters across the political spectrum have lost patience waiting for specific evidence of it. Lefties are unhappy the war isn't over. Environmentalists are angry at the delayed energy bill. Unions hated the now-dead immigration bill. Seniors want their drug prices lowered. Every voter—regardless of party—wants the House ethics rules changed. "We're not satisfied with the pace of change, but we are going in a different direction than the Republican set," says Rahm Emanuel, the architect of the 2006 House takeover. "Now, we have things we have to do to both look better and alter people's perspective—no doubt about it."

Party leaders started realizing they were in trouble roughly a month ago, when a Quinippiac University poll put their approval rating at what now seems like a robust 23%. At the same time, members began hearing complaints from constituents as talk radio labeled them a "Do Nothing Congress" and Republican leaders, for the first time since the election, felt emboldened. "Congressional Democrats campaigned on restoring the bonds of trust between the American people and their elected leaders, but the fact is they have failed to deliver on any of their promises and have almost no accomplishments of which to speak," House Minority Leader John Boehner told TIME. "Their inability to govern is making it increasingly clear that there's a real crisis in leadership on Capitol Hill because nothing is getting accomplished."

Of course, if you trip over a year-old newspaper the odds are you'd find Nancy Pelosi saying almost the same thing about Dennis Hastert's congress. As a body, the House has never been famed for its celerity. But in the last six months Democrats have passed just one major piece of legislation into law: the emergency funding bill for the war in Iraq, signed by Bush only after Democrats stripped out a timeline for withdrawing U.S. troops.

Anticipating that the funding bill might be their only passable vehicle for a while, Democrats packed the measure with funding for veterans' programs, Katrina recovery, children's healthcare and the first increase in minimum wage in 10 years. When the supplemental was made into law, Republican critics labeled all of the non-war related items pork. When Democrats passed a budget, Republicans called it "the biggest tax increase in U.S. history" even though the resolution didn't increase a single tax.

To complete the reversal of fortunes, Democrats have picked up a Republican strategy circa 2004: accuse the opposition of being obstructionist. "Because of the obstructionism of the Republicans in the United States Senate, I'm not happy with Congress, either," Pelosi told reporters at a press conference highlighting Democratic achievements last week. "I believe that our record will come across to the American people as we're able to pass legislation into law or… tell the American people as to why that hasn't happened."

Democrats in the Senate are facing many of the same problems. Majority Leader Harry Reid controls the Senate by one of the slimmest margins in U.S. History, with 48 Democrats constituting a majority (Senators Joe Lieberman and Vermont's Bernie Sanders are Independents who caucus with the Democrats and South Dakota Democrat Tim Johnson is still out on medical leave). As a result, Reid has been forced to file for cloture (a procedural tactic to prevent filibusters) more than 40 times in six months—a record pace. "I have come to the conclusion that everything I do is going to be objected to," Reid told TIME.

So what can Reid do? After months of being banged around, last week he decided to play hardball. He threatened to hold the Senate in session through August recess—a month both chambers usually take off—unless Republicans relent and clear the way for ethics reform and the implementation of the 9/11 commission's recommendations.

Pelosi, too, has begun fighting back. Taking recent criticism of the President's "surge" plan by Republican Senators Richard Lugar and John Warner as evidence of a splintering opposition party, SHE PLANS TO hold one vote each week in July on the war, including a second run at a timeline for withdrawal and a bipartisan measure that would strip Bush's authority to wage war in Iraq. The idea is that if more and more Republicans are forced to turn against the President, Democrats will eventually have the votes to force Bush into a timeline for withdrawal.

Despite the poll numbers, Emanuel claims he isn't worried yet. A Democracy Corps poll of the top 35 vulnerable Democratic districts last month found that when voters are given actual candidates to choose from, Democrats are maintaining a comfortable lead—most of them top their Republican competitors by double digits. "When 72% of the country thinks things are heading in the wrong direction, they're not going to feel good about anything," Emanuel, said.

• Jay Newton-Small/Washington
• Back in power, the Democrats are discovering that role reversal in the House isn't all it's cracked up to be