For all of the talk and media coverage of President Bush’s low approval ratings in opinion polls, it now emerges that the US public has just as low an opinion of the Democrat Congress: Poll: Congress, Bush share low approval.

Is this what they call a “mandate?”

The survey found only 35 percent approve of how Congress is handling its job, down 5 percentage points in a month. That gives lawmakers the same bleak approval rating as Bush, who has been mired at about that level since last fall, including his dip to a record low for the AP-Ipsos poll of 32 percent last January.

“It’s mostly Iraq” plus a lack of progress in other areas, said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., who heads the House GOP’s campaign committee. “These are not good numbers for an incumbent, and it doesn’t matter if you have an ‘R’ or a ‘D’ next to your name.”

Democrats and their far left base will spin this as evidence that they need to work even harder to force a retreat from Iraq.