Congress has a terrible approval rating, and they need something to avoid talking about the issues that people want them to talk about. Wouldn't it be great to have people focus on same-sex marriage instead of the corruption issues facing Congress?

A less visible part of the damage done by Katrina may be what's happened to the President's approval rating.

[It's unusual for members of Congress to accept donations in the days surrounding contract awards because doing so can easily] blow up in their face, ... There's a fine line between a contributor supporting someone who helps them and giving a contribution in direct response to getting a contract.

Not only is it not unusual for a president to have an approval rating at 38 percent, it's almost predictable. Every president has rough patches, it says nothing about the ultimate historical judgment.

In a body [like Congress] where there are more than one hundred talking lawyers, you can make no calculation upon the termination of any debate.

We've gone through three phases and had a 60 percent approval rating. We're hoping the citizens think we're doing a good job and making improvements in the city and hope they'll vote for it a fourth time.