The 112th Congress is "the single most despised Congress of all time," as Ezra Klein put it on The Rachel Maddow Show. But not only is Congress unpopular, over the last year its public approval rating has slipped to lower than that of the BP oil spill, Paris Hilton, and even Communism, at times.
Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) put together a chart, which he showed during a floor speech, that compared the approval rating of Congress at an all-time low of 9% last fall with other unpopular people and concepts in American history. Congress proved to be more popular than only Fidel Castro, who came in at 5%. It was tied with Hugo Chavez.
Klein, guest-hosting for Maddow also pointed out that in addition to being so dramatically unpopular, Congress is also on track to be the least productive since at least 1947.
Gallup reported that the public's approval of Congress had risen to 17% by June, which is still down significantly from a high of 39% in March 2009 (its highest rating since February 2005).