In the wake of the last minute fiscal cliff deal, a new poll has found that Congress' unpopularity surpasses that of some of the most loathed experiences and pests in American culture, including root canals, cock roaches, traffic jams, and even head lice.
To come up with the results, Public Policy Polling asked respondents whether they had a higher opinion of Congress or one of a series of "unpleasant or disliked things" and tallied the preferences.
Two thirds of those polled said that they preferred head lice to Congress, 57% said they preferred used-car salesmen, and 56% picked NFL replacement refs and traffic jams over the folks over on Capitol Hill. The historically maligned vegetable, brussels sprouts beat Congress by the largest margin, with only 23% choosing Congress and 69% preferring brussels sprouts.
Since August, Congress has hit record low popularity hovering in the low teens in a series of polls conducted by various outlets.
But it wasn't all gloom for the newly minted 113th Congress, representatives were still more popular than meth labs, telemarketers, the ebola virus. and Lindsay Lohan.
Congress also proved more popular than playground bullies by a 5 point margin, but given how often some of members are compared to them, that's only a partial victory.