Rep Compares Congress to Dog Poop, And He's Right

According to a recent poll, dog poop is literally more popular than Congress these days.

This was one piece of evidence Congressional Representative Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) mentioned in his speech on the House Floor Tuesday to flaunt the public's disapproval of Congress. What else is more popular than Congress? Try Zombies, the DMV, toenail fungus, hemorrhoids, and cockroaches. Overall, an alarmingly low 8% of those polled approve of the job that Congress is doing. By citing this poll, Grayson was hoping to bring about a vote on a resolution to declare the government shutdown has harmed the dignity of the House of Representatives. "If we're accused of willingly provoking crises that suspend public services and decrease economic growth, then surely our dignity as a body has been diminished," stated Grayson.

After a brief exchange, House Speaker pro tempore Steve Womack (R-Ariz.) interrupted Grayson's speech and prevented him from continuing. He then ruled that according to Congressional rules, Grayson's resolution was not "privileged" and would not be allowed a vote in the House. Perhaps Womack really believed that the resolution was simply not appropriate. But more likely, he saw Grayson's plan for what it really was. The resolution was not actually a holistic critique of the House of Representatives. Rather, it was a Democrat critiquing House Republicans for their decisions that, he believed, led to the government shutdown.

At face value, Grayson's tactics involving talking about dog poop seem silly. But the government has been shutdown for nine days and House Republicans are still unwilling to budge. Perhaps moderate Republicans will cave and allow a vote to come to the House floor to reopen the government if attention is drawn to how unpopular their actions are making them. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and perhaps the GOP needs to know that the nation is simply not with them on this one.