Pelosi’s approval rating tanks – CIA’s is above 60 percent

Bad news for our embattled House Speaker:

Nearly half of all Americans — 48 percent — disapprove of how the California Democrat she is handling her job as Speaker of the House in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Monday, while 39 percent approve of her performance.

That rating makes her less popular than other members of her party — congressional Democrats drew a 51 percent approval rating in last month’s CNN/ORC survey — and roughly in line with the congressional GOP, which drew positive ratings in April from just 39 percent of those polled.

That puts her approval rating at roughly the levels Newt Gingrich had in his first year as Speaker of the House. (Back in 1995, Gingrich’s approval rating was 37 percent; by 1997 — at the same point in his speakership that Pelosi is now — that had dropped to just 25 percent.)

This isn’t the only poll showing low numbers for Pelosi. Rasmussen released a poll today which showed that not only are Americans divided over whether or not they believe Pelosi was “misled” by the CIA on the use of EITs (43% say “somewhat likely” while 41% say it’s “not likely”), but her favorable ratings according to the Rasmussen poll stand at 35%. The CIA’s approval rating? 63%.

Yowza. She’s got her work cut out for her if she wants to try and reverse those numbers. One way that might help? To do as House Minority Leader John Boehner has suggested on her allegations that the CIA “misled” her: Show the evidence that they did … or apologize.

Stay tuned …

Related reading:

• Richard Olivastro – Will Pelosi Remain House Speaker?
• Glenn Thrush – CIA gave Pelosi a heads up before Panetta smackdown