Rasmussen: 59% of Voters Would Vote To Replace All of Congress

59% of those polled would vote to replace all of Congress:

Congress was front and center in the national news last week and the American people were far from impressed. If they could vote to keep or replace the entire Congress, 59% of voters would like to throw them all out and start over again. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that just 17% would vote to keep the current legislators in office.

Today, just 23% have even a little confidence in the ability of Congress to deal with the nation’s economic problems and only 24% believe most Members of Congress understand legislation before they vote on it.

That runs counter to the old adage - "I hate Congress but love my Congressman or Senator."

After all, how else is someone like Rep. William "Cold Cash" Jefferson (D-LA) or Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) or Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) or Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) currently able to run for reelection and will be able hold onto their seat despite apparent criminality, scandal, tax dodging, doing nothing to avert fiscal crisis when they had the power to limit the damage from toxic paper, or any number of other issues? Around these parts, you had Newark's former Mayor and a state senator Sharpe James convicted of multiple charges of corruption, and yet many wouldn't have had a problem reelecting him. Or Rep. Vito Fossella (R-NY) who acknowledged that he had a mistress and love child and was forced from the ticket in November, but who is trying to get back on the ticket.

The fact is that constituents will overlook and ignore the problems with their representatives and vote for who they've always voted for - often because of the (D) or (R) next to their name. In fact, most members of Congress run essentially unopposed in general elections and most elections even in primaries are not competitive, enabling an entrenchment in political positions across the country.

There's a reason that Congress has such dismal ratings - even lower than that of President Bush, but no one is willing to do anything about their own member of Congress, who they'll reelect without any reservations.

UPDATE:
To prove my point, Rep. Jefferson had a runoff election yesterday in Louisiana to determine the Democrat nominee for the general election. Jefferson won.

Despite the dual impediments of an upcoming federal trial on public corruption charges and a slew of well-financed opponents, U.S. Rep. William Jefferson ran first in Saturday's Democratic Party primary for the 2nd Congressional District seat that he has held for 18 years.

He will battle former TV news anchor and first-time candidate Helena Moreno of New Orleans in the Nov. 4 contest. With two-thirds of the district's voters registered as Democrats, the winner of the party runoff is almost certain to claim the congressional seat.