It looks like the honeymoon between the American people and the Democratic Party in Congress is most definitely over,

"The modest uptick in approval of the job being done by Congress has dissipated for the most part after only two months. Congress job approval had risen over the last two months after the Democrats took over control of Congress in early January -- fueled in large part by a jump in approval among rank and file Democrats. This month, however, Congress job approval is back down to levels quite similar to where it was in 2006. Democrats have lost a good deal of the positivity exhibited in the first two months of the year after their party took over.

According to Gallup's monthly update on job approval of Congress -- in a March 11-14, 2007, national poll -- 28% of Americans approve of the job being done by Congress and 64% disapprove. This marks a substantial change from January and February, with approval down nine points and disapproval up nine points.

The current reading suggests that Americans are reverting back to their pessimistic attitudes of last year, when Congress approval ratings were in the 20s for much of the year."

The lefty blogs seem to think this is all about the war. Taylor Marsh's comments were typical,

"Today a Gallup Poll came out illustrating one clear thing. Democrats are paying the price for not acting more aggressively on Iraq. Bowers has much more. Pelosi is pulling out all the stops, starting with backing Murtha for majority leader, but she's taking heat over the pork in the legislation meant to lure no votes into the fold. The GOP is furious, calling it "vote buying," but Pelosi is willing to play hardball to get the House on record on the war."

Quite frankly, this doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The Democrats have been stridently, vocally, against the war from the moment they got into power. Furthermore, they've tried numerous strategies to undermine the troops in Iraq -- the non-binding resolution, the cut and run, the slow bleed, you name it. The only thing they haven't tried is cutting off the funds for the war, a maneuver they don't have the votes to pull off and that doesn't poll well, even if they did.

So, what's behind their sinking ratings? A number of things. First and foremost, you've got to remember that Democrats got into power because the American people were unhappy with the Republicans, not because the Democrats had an appealing positive agenda.

If anything, the message the American people were sending was that they were sick of business as usual. Yet, what have they gotten from the Democrats so far? More of the same. The Democrats complained about the Republicans' wasteful spending, but the Democrats are ladling out the pork left and right. The Dems said the Republicans weren't bipartisan, but if anything, the Democrats have been even more partisan than the Republicans were. The Democrats told everybody they would clean up the "culture of corruption" in DC; then they stuck William Jefferson on the Homeland Security Commission. Moreover, the Democrats have lived up to the worst stereotypes that Republicans have put forth about them on the war. The American people did want a change in Iraq, but there's precious little evidence that the change they were looking for was an immediate surrender to Al-Qaeda, which is what the netroots so desperately wants.

The Republicans may have done a lousy job in the last election, but if anything, the Democrats have been worse. They have the same old back seat driving, carping from the sidelines, eaten up with the Bush Dementia Syndrome attitude that they had when they were the minority, but now they're in charge and they're going to have to prove they can do a better job of governing than the Republicans. So far, they haven't pulled it off and the polls reflect that fact.