One poll after another is bad news for Rs

A number of national polls out this week tell the same story: Americans know about the Abramoff scandal, think it will hurt Republicans and believe that Democrats will be more honest running Congress than Republicans.

Public Strongly Believes That Democrats Are More Ethical & Honest. By a 12-point margin, Americans questioned last week feel that Democrats will do a better job of dealing with corruption in government. In a separate poll, voters felt Democrats would govern more ethically and honestly than Republicans by a 7-point margin. [USAToday/CNN/Gallup, 1/10/06; Pew Research Center, 1/11/06]

By A Nearly 2:1 Margin, Voters Think Republicans Are More Corrupt. According to the new CBS News poll, Republicans in Congress are nearly twice as likely as their Democratic counterparts to be seen as the party that is more financially corrupt. [CBS News, 1/9/06]

Only 1% of Public Believe Abramoff Will Hurt Democrats. According to the CBS News poll, only 1% of voters think that Democrats will be the party most significantly involved the testimony Jack Abramoff agreed to as part of his plea agreement. [CBS News, 1/9/06]

More Than Half of Americans Are Paying Attention to Abramoff Case. According to the USAToday/CNN/Gallup poll, 53% of American voters believe that the Abramoff case is a major scandal. [USAToday/CNN/Gallup, 1/10/06]

By a 13-Point Margin, Americans Want Democrats to Lead Congress. A new AP-Ipsos poll shows that Americans would prefer Democrats in control of Congress by 49% - 36%. As Time magazine noted after the release of the AP poll, the fact is that about two-thirds of Abramoff-related money went to Republicans, and that may have already begun to shift the political equation.-- [AP, 1/7/06; Time, 1/16/06]

More Than Half of Americans Disapprove of GOP Congressional Leaders. A new Pew Research poll shows that 52% of Americans disapprove of the job the Republican leaders in Congress are doing. [Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, 1/11/06]

Americans Have Little Faith in GOP Legislative Policies. According to a new USAToday/CNN/Gallup poll, 50% of Americans believe that the policies being proposed by Republican congressional leaders will move the country in the wrong direction. [USAToday/CNN/Gallup, 1/10/06]

The bad news, of course, is that because of partisan redistricting there are only a couple of dozen really competitive House seats in the whole country. But these polls certainly should give Ds some hope. Now if we only had a message.

Hat tip: DSCC.