The Cheney-branded broadside won wide attention for the fledgling group. The attack follows a long history of Republican claims that Democrats are weaker than the GOP on national security. Whether this attack, which strains long-held American concepts of legal fair play, gathers momentum with the general public remains to be seen, but such criticism has long been used to energize activists on the GOPs right wing.

This time, however, a number of prominent conservative lawyers, including former special prosecutor Kenneth Starr, who served as solicitor general in the Justice Department during George H.W. Bushs administration, signed a letter decrying the attacks as “shameful.”

Starr is perhaps best known as the former independent counsel whose office spent millions in the 1990s on a probe of then-President Bill Clintons affair with Monica Lewinsky and efforts to cover it up, which led to the presidents impeachment by the House.

Among the letters signers were veterans of George W. Bushs Justice Department, including Larry Thompson, who was deputy attorney general, and Viet Dinh, who helped write the Patriot Act. The signers even included Bushs former deputy assistant defense secretary for detainee affairs, Charles “Cully” Stimson, who resigned in 2007 while under fire for saying he found it shocking that lawyers at many top firms represent detainees at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

“The American tradition of zealous representation of unpopular clients is at least as old as John Adams representation of the British soldiers charged in the Boston massacre,” their letter said. “To suggest that the Justice Department should not employ talented lawyers who have advocated on behalf of detainees maligns the patriotism of people who have taken honorable positions” and “demands a uniformity of background and view in government service from which no administration would benefit.”

The letter was crafted by Ben Wittes, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank, who called the whole debate “a visible symptom of a broader disease” in an increasingly “coarse and stupid” public discussion of how to treat terror suspects.

“The right wants to pretend that this issue is a simple matter of toughness, saying, Are you man enough to think about al-Qaida as a war? And the left throws out nonsense verbiage like respect the rule of law, which basically means if you dont agree with their policy views youre disrespectful of the law,” said Wittes.

Matt Bennett, a spokesman for the moderate Democratic group Third Way, said, “Republicans are guaranteed to call their opponents weak on security, regardless of who they are,” and have forced Democrats to defend their national security credentials since the Vietnam War.

The issue of past legal work for detainees was first raised in a congressional hearing last year, where Republican senators pressed Attorney General Eric Holder to identify how many such lawyers had been hired by the Obama administration. Holder put them off, and the issue smoldered for months until the interest group went on the offensive.

Holder is likely to face more such questions when he testifies on Capitol Hill this month, as well as new questions about a friend-of-the-court brief he signed years ago in a Supreme Court terror detention case.

Debra Burlingame, a co-founder of Keep America Safe, said its goal is to make the Obama administration answer questions about how it is making decisions about Guantanamo Bay detainees.

“This is a question about who is setting policy, who is involved in advising the attorney general on policy,” she said. “It is a legitimate question to ask.”

For the most high-profile attorney in that group, the answer is simple.

Tony West, the head of the Justice Departments civil division, was once part of the legal team that represented John Walker Lindh, the so-called American Taliban captured in Afghanistan.

As a member of the Obama administration, West now oversees the governments response to lawsuits by detainees seeking their freedom. In that position, he has signed dozens of legal briefs on detainee matters, most arguing for continued detention of the suspects.

The challenges directed at West and the other lawyers also strike at some core practices of U.S. lawyers - providing free representation for people who cant afford lawyers, or representing people so despised by the public it is difficult for them to hire a lawyer.

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The Fed also would retain its power to oversee nearly two dozen bank holding companies that hold about two-thirds of the banking systems assets, according to these people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions.

That would make the Fed, already one of the most influential agencies in the federal government, the main entity responsible for avoiding a future financial meltdown like the one that struck Wall Street in the fall of 2008.

For the once-embattled central bank, the Senate negotiations represent a remarkable change of fortune.

In November, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd wanted the Fed stripped of its supervisory powers so it could focus on its job setting monetary policy and modulating the economy. And in January, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke survived a grueling Senate confirmation for a second term that had forced the White House to intervene.

Since then, Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner have been making a case publicly and privately to Dodd and his main Republican negotiating partner, Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, to let the Fed retain certain supervisory powers.

“Bernanke has done better,” Dodd said in an interview Wednesday. “Theres an appreciation that the Fed - Bernanke particularly - handled the situation over the last year in a very difficult environment, handled it well.

“I always felt that the supervisory function over large institutions, that that was kind of a toss-up,” Dodd said.

With its power to turn the dial on interest rates, the Federal Reserve has unmatched muscle to control economic growth, employment and inflation. It also is the countrys lender of last resort when banks cant get their money elsewhere - a formidable tool that the Fed exercised fully at the height of the financial crisis.

The people familiar with the evolving legislation say the Fed would continue to supervise bank holding companies with assets of $100 billion or more, while losing its power over thousands of smaller bank holding companies and hundreds of state-chartered banks.

More significantly, however, it would gain oversight of the nonbank firms that regulators identify as having the most potential to threaten the financial systems stability in the future.

In addition, Dodd and Corker are considering making the Fed the home for a consumer financial protection entity that would write regulations on products ranging from mortgages to credit cards.

Ernest Patrikis, a former first vice president and chief operating officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said he would prefer the Fed perform as a single regulator for the entire banking system, not just the biggest holding companies. Nevertheless, he said, “this, compared to what it could have been, is not as bad for the Fed.”

While the Fed would supervise the large bank holding companies, their bank subsidiaries would still be overseen by bank regulators and broker dealer subsidiaries would be regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. However, the proposal being negotiated in the Senate would give the Fed the right, if necessary, to step in and examine the subsidiaries as well.

“The key thing is that whoever the regulator is faces no barriers when it snoops around a systemically important institution, that it never encounters an out-of-bounds sign,” said Alan Blinder, a former Fed vice chairman and now a professor at Princeton University.

Losing oversight of smaller bank holding companies and state-charted banks would require institutional changes at the Fed and its system of 12 regional banks. The regional banks perform a key function in taking the pulse of the economy and helping the Fed set monetary policy. In that regard, their work would not change. But with many of the largest holding companies based in New York, regional banks elsewhere would see their bank examination functions diminish.

Blinder and consumer advocates also have questioned whether the Fed is the most appropriate place for a consumer protection agency.

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Theres no connection between Rangels violation of House gift rules - as reported by the House ethics committee - and the ethics panels abruptly ended investigation of Massas alleged harassment of male staff members.

But there is this link: Both cases represent potential albatrosses for Democrats in the fall elections, and the party can only hope that the problems fade away.

The House Democratic campaign chairman, Rep. Chris Van Hollen, confirmed Wednesday that the House ethics committee has ended its investigation of Massa because his resignation this week removed him from the panels jurisdiction.

But Van Hollen quickly acknowledged in an ABC News webcast that Massa staff members who complained of harassment can still pursue the case in other forums. And House Republican leader John Boehner said there were many questions in the case that still must be answered.

Translation: The potential political damage is far from over.

Rangels problems also continue. He stepped aside this month as chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee after the ethics committee reported that the New York City Democrat ran afoul of gift rules by accepting corporate money to attend two Caribbean conferences.

Still under way is a more serious ethics investigation of Rangels fundraising and finances, including allegations that he misused his official position to raise money for a center named after him at City College of New York. The ethics committee also is looking at his belated reporting of hundreds of thousands of dollars in assets.

Rangel acknowledged he became a political liability when he stepped aside from his chairmanship. He said staying on would have prolonged distractions for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats.

“Its not fair to her and its not fair to the many freshmen and those who have close districts, that instead of getting their message out, (reporters and constituents) are asking about me,” Rangel said.

If Massa and Rangel were the Democrats only problems, the party might be able to control the damage more easily.

But they also must contend with investigations and misconduct of others in the party:

-New York Gov. David Paterson faces two misconduct investigations and increasing calls for him to quit.

-Patersons predecessor, Eliot Spitzer, resigned in a prostitution scandal.

Republicans are mindful that Republican ethical misconduct was one reason the GOP lost control of the House in the 2006 elections. The party was badly damaged by the case of then-Rep. Mark Foley, a Florida Republican who sent sexually suggestive messages to former male pages.

That was bad enough, but the real damage came when it was learned that Republican leaders knew of the misconduct and took no action.

A Democratic leadership aide, who was not authorized to be quoted, said Wednesday night that the speakers office was told of Massas use of strong language and other problems in his office in October - but nothing about harassment.

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“It does not make sense to discriminate against for-profit organizations,” said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, a Hawaii Democrat.

The earmark process has been supported by most lawmakers in both parties. Critics say earmarks for private companies amount to no-bid contracts for firms that often provide contributions to lawmakers re-election campaigns. President Barack Obama last year called such projects “the single most corrupting element in this practice.”

Banning them may help Democrats contend with concern among voters about rising federal spending and deficits, as well as a series of ethics-related inquiries involving Democratic lawmakers.

The proposal also put pressure on Republicans to come up with their own proposals to crack down on such spending. House Republican leaders issued a joint statement urging their colleagues to adopt a moratorium on all earmarks at a meeting scheduled for today.

Broken Washington

“For millions of Americans, the earmark process in Congress has become a symbol of broken Washington,” said the statement by House Minority Leader John Boehner, second-ranking Republican Eric Cantor of Virginia and third-ranking Republican Mike Pence of Indiana.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said the ban “will ensure good stewardship of taxpayer dollars.”

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said his party is leading on the issue. “Republicans, while controlling Congress for 12 years, never implemented action to reduce earmarks or bring transparency and accountability to the earmark process,” he said.

Previous attempts to clamp down on the practice have run into opposition in the Senate.

Inouye said “it is no secret” that for-profit companies, like non-profits, hire lobbyists and make political contributions to lawmakers that are “all fully disclosed and available for all to see on the Internet.” Referring to the Predator drones used in Afghanistan, Inouye said, “this program was the direct result of a congressional earmark directed to a for-profit company.”

The House Democrats plan was cheered by earmark critic Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington group that tracks spending projects. He said “earmarks to for-profit entities are certainly ground zero for pay-to-play.”

“Much of this ground gained will be lost if the Senate doesnt step up to the plate,” Ellis said. “The campaign cash will flow a little more heavily to the Senate side of the Capitol and for-profits earmarks will remain alive and well.”

Ellis proposed that Obama settle the issue by threatening to veto bills that include corporate earmarks.

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While Republicans hammer away on joblessness this election year, unemployment is lower than the U.S. average in most districts where House Democrats are especially vulnerable. Just five of the 22 Democratic-represented metropolitan areas ranked as toss-ups by the Cook Political Report had jobless rates of 10 percent or higher in December, the latest figures available, a review of Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows.

The Democrats struggle to capitalize on those numbers suggests how hard it will be to overcome negative perceptions about an economy trying to emerge from a recession.

“People are just upset at Washington, and theyre taking it out on the party that controls it,” said Nathan Gonzales, political editor of the Washington-based Rothenberg Political Report.

Twenty-seven percent of Americans say unemployment is the nations biggest problem, compared with 13 percent who say health care, according to a Feb. 5-10 CBS News/New York Times poll. Thats why Republicans focused on at least 78 Democratic- held House districts with the same mailing, declaring the $862 billion stimulus plan a failure.

Growing Jobs

Yet in Markeys northern Colorado district covering cities such as Fort Collins, Loveland and Greeley, businesses such as Crop Production Services, an agricultural-products producer that employs 300 people in the area, and Therm-Tech of Colorado, an eight-person metal-treating company, are expanding. The district also houses operations of Santa Clara, California-based Intel Corp. and Palo Alto, California-based Hewlett-Packard Co.

Last month, the Congressional Budget Office estimated the stimulus package, which Obama signed on Feb. 17, 2009, produced or saved as many as 2.1 million jobs nationwide last year.

“Many of them were in my district,” Markey, 53, said in an interview. “If you ask those people whose job was created or saved as a result of the things that have been done in Washington, they might feel differently.”

More than 1,144 new jobs are projected to be created in Loveland, which has 65,000 people, during the next three years, the citys Chamber of Commerce says.

Out of Luck

Pruess doesnt credit Markey for the local economy. “I havent seen her do anything that would make her outstanding,” she said.

Markey isnt alone in facing a tough re-election in a district with lower unemployment. The southern Indiana district of Democratic Representative Baron Hill had 6.9 percent unemployment in December, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In Carol Shea-Porters Manchester, New Hampshire- area district, 6.7 percent of the people were out of work.

Democratic candidates who might want to talk up the numbers have to be careful about looking insensitive to those out of work, says Ross Baker, a congressional expert at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

“They cant say were in fat city, and everybody else is gasping for air,” he said.

Cold Comfort

Markey agrees. Her districts “much lower-than-average unemployment rate,” she said, is “cold comfort to the thousands of people who are still struggling to find work.”

Another concern for Democrats is that many of these areas are packed with Republicans. Both Hill and Markeys districts voted Republican in the past two presidential elections by at least 6 points more than the national average, according to the Cook report. And Markey is the first Democrat to win Colorados fourth since 1973.

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The U.S. is trying to persuade China, which holds a UN Security Council veto, to back a resolution that may penalize Iranian banking, shipping and insurance industries. Saudi Arabia, the Middle Easts largest producer of crude oil, is Chinas biggest supplier, and Gatess mission follows Secretary of State Hillary Clintons visit last month to make a similar pitch.

Saudi Arabia could “help us in our efforts at the UN so that we can get meaningful sanctions enacted against Iran,” Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told reporters accompanying the defense chief.

The Saudis seemed to be supportive of the U.S. shift, according to an American defense official who briefed reporters on Gatess meetings on condition of anonymity. Gates explained that the U.S. prefers to target the Iranian leadership to the extent possible and minimize the impact on the Iranian people.

Closing Ranks

The visit by Gates to the kingdom is intended to project the impression that partners in the region are closing ranks in opposition to Irans nuclear and missile development and its support of terrorist groups such as Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Gates aims to demonstrate that Irans military buildup in defiance of international demands wont make the country more secure and may backfire.

Weapons purchases by U.S.-allied Persian Gulf nations have grown in recent years, along with joint military training and exercises, according to an American defense official who briefed reporters before the trip.

Saudi Arabia has been among the top three buyers of U.S. defense equipment and services in three periods examined by the Congressional Research Service since fiscal 2001. Deliveries to the kingdom topped the list in 2008, the latest year reported, with a total value of $1.2 billion, ranking just ahead of Israel.

Modernize Forces

Saudi Arabia wants to do more to modernize its force, and the U.S. is helping determine how best to accomplish that, the briefer said. The kingdom didnt make any specific requests, the official said.

Iran opened a new production facility to build short-range missiles that can reach targets at sea, Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said this week in remarks carried by the state-run Fars news agency.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who defends his countrys nuclear program as a legitimate energy-development effort, also was in Kabul, overlapping with Gates. The U.S. defense chief expressed amusement at the schedule.

Conspiratorialists

“Its clearly fodder for all conspiratorialists,” Gates told reporters at a briefing with his Afghan counterpart, Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak, before he left for Saudi Arabia. Gates reiterated the U.S. position that Afghanistan should have constructive ties with all its neighbors.

“But we also want all of Afghanistans neighbors to play an upfront game in dealing with the government of Afghanistan,” Gates said. The U.S. says Iran is providing funding and other assistance to the insurgency in Afghanistan in an effort to ensure that the coalition led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization fails in the war against the Taliban.

On Iraq, the Saudis are still not ready to commit to opening an embassy in Baghdad, a longstanding request from the U.S., the official said. Iraqis are awaiting official results from parliamentary elections held March 7, as candidates jockey for positions in a likely coalition government.

The Obama administration hopes to ease the effect of its troop withdrawal in the next 18 months by encouraging regional partners to serve as a bulwark for Iraq, which was ostracized under Saddam Hussein.

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“In light of the ongoing disagreement between Israel and the U.S. on building in Jerusalem, the prime minister said there was no need to advance the planning process this week,” an e- mailed statement from Netanyahus office said. “The prime minister spoke to Vice President Biden and expressed his regret for the unfortunate timing.”

The plans for 1,600 new homes in east Jerusalem were the second building project approved this week in areas sought by Palestinians for a future state, and came after the sides agreed on March 8 to U.S.-backed indirect negotiations intended to break a 15-month impasse.

“President Abbas is waiting for an American response to his request that Israel revoke the construction orders as it will be difficult to engage in negotiations without their being revoked,” chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said in a phone interview today.

Clear Rejection

The 22-member Arab League, which earlier had accepted the idea of indirect talks, said yesterday that Israeli construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem is “a clear rejection of peace efforts,” a statement issued by the Middle East News Agency said.

Biden, in comments made after meeting Abbas in the West Bank town of Ramallah yesterday, called on the sides “to build an atmosphere of support for negotiations and not to complicate them.”

He condemned the Israeli plan to build in east Jerusalem, saying it threatened to undermine peace efforts. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Jordans Minister of Information and Communication Nabil Sharif, and European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton also criticized the plan.

“As we move forward, the United States will hold both sides accountable for any statements or actions that inflame tensions or prejudice the outcome of talks, as this decision did,” Biden said.

East Jerusalem

The homes approved this week will be built in an area of Jerusalem captured by Israel from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed in a move not recognized internationally. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem as the capital of a state they are seeking to establish in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

Also this week, Israel approved the construction of about 100 homes in a West Bank settlement.

Previous U.S. efforts to revive talks foundered on the issue of West Bank settlements, with Netanyahu announcing a partial building halt that excluded east Jerusalem and Abbas refusing to negotiate without a freeze on all Israeli construction.

“We always make a clear distinction between the West Bank and Jerusalem, which is sovereign Israeli territory and the capital and it will remain so,” Netanyahu spokesman Mark Regev said in a phone interview.

The last round of peace talks collapsed in 2008 after Israel carried out a military operation in the Gaza Strip in what it said was a bid to stop rocket attacks on its southern towns and cities.

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“How can you look in the face of a real working man,” Esteban Contreras said. The community activists listening at the union hall in Orlando, Florida, last week booed and hissed.

Trumka, head of the nations largest union organization, is hoping to tap into that kind of anger at Wall Street with two weeks of protests aimed at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the most profitable securities firm in U.S. history, and the countrys five other largest banks. The AFL-CIO says it plans 200 events covering all 50 states, starting March 15.

“Wall Street has become a symbol of greed run amok, and what labor is doing here is seeking to demonstrate that it is speaking for working families generally, union member or non- union member,” said Harley Shaiken, a labor professor at the University of California at Berkeley.

At the “Make Wall Street Pay” rallies, which the AFL-CIO plans to announce today, union members will push for a transaction tax on securities trading to help pay for the $900 billion they want the government to spend on creating new jobs. Thats 60 times the $15 billion approved by the Senate last month. The House of Representatives last week passed an $18 billion measure.

Demanding More

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner has said he opposes the transaction tax, though Trumka says it has support in the White House. He declined to say who the backers are.

Lucas van Praag, a spokesman for Goldman Sachs in New York, declined to comment.

San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co. “recognizes Americans are demanding more from their financial institutions during these difficult economic times” and is “committed to serving the financial needs of businesses and individuals, keeping credit flowing, and working to help those in financial distress find solutions,” spokeswoman Julia Tunis Bernard said.

The unions also plan protests at Bank of America Corp., based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and New York-based banks JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley.

Bank of America spokeswoman Kelly Sapp declined to comment on the protests, as did Morgan Stanley spokeswoman Jeanmarie McFadden and JPMorgans Jennifer Zuccarelli.

Dwindling Ranks

Labor unions have failed to achieve some of their top goals since Democrats, their traditional political allies, took control of the White House and Congress. Their principal legislative priority, the so-called card-check bill making it easier to organize, has stalled, even though President Barack Obama embraced it during his presidential campaign.

Obama also pressed labor leaders to back a tax on expensive health insurance plans, including those that cover some union members, as part of an effort to overhaul health care. The National Labor Relations Board has been dormant for two years as Obama and congressional Democrats failed to get a union ally installed.

By targeting banks, unions are trying to bring energy to a labor movement that has seen its ranks dwindle. Union membership in the private sector declined in 2009 to a record low of 7.2 percent of all workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Unions represented about 35 percent of the private- sector workers in the mid-1950s, and 17 percent as recently as 1983.

SEIU Protests

“Unions dont have the clout they used to, so they need to get the general public involved, maybe even people who are not normally union supporters, and remind them they are getting the short end of the stick,” said Charles Craver, a labor professor at George Washington University in Washington.

The rallies are similar to efforts by the Service Employees International Union, which has been targeting big banks for years. In November, SEIU president Andy Stern staged a rally outside Goldman Sachss Washington office, calling for the bank to cancel its bonuses. The SEIU, with 2.2 million members, is the nations largest union.

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Obama is trying to rally public support for the biggest changes to U.S. health care in 45 years in the face of unanimous Republican opposition. He said his proposals show there are ways to pay for expanding insurance coverage to tens of millions of Americans without running up the federal budget deficit.

“So much of the money currently in our health-care system is being misspent,” he said. “If we can have a smarter health- care system, then yes, we can provide help to middle-class folks who need it and, at the same time, actually reduce the burden on taxpayers.”

The president earlier signed an order authorizing government agencies to use private auditors to uncover fraudulent claims and payment errors, a step the White House says may save $2 billion over three years. The order, along with pending legislation, will help keep the Medicare health program for the elderly solvent, Obama said.

Time to Vote

Obama urged Congress to take action, saying “its time to vote” on the health legislation. “Now is the time, now is the moment,” he said. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid yesterday both said the Democrats were making progress.

At stake is a plan that would give insurers such as Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc. millions of new customers while requiring them to accept all who seek coverage and imposing new regulations on the industry. Americans would also have to buy insurance, with new purchasing exchanges and government aid to help them afford coverage.

WellPoints chief financial officer said the bill will force healthy people out of the market while doing nothing to control medical costs. Those, he said, are just the conditions that led the insurer to plan a rate increase in California, a move that became a rallying point for Democrats seeking the overhaul.

California “is a preview of what health-care reform is going to look like,” CFO Wayne DeVeydt said yesterday at an investor conference in Boston.

Reconciliation Measure

Obamas plan relies mostly on a Senate bill passed in December. Hes pressing House Democrats to approve that bill while passing another measure that would make negotiated changes. The changes would be passed under a budget procedure called reconciliation that would require a simple majority vote in the Democratic-controlled, 100-member Senate, rather than the 60 that often is needed for major legislation.

All 41 Senate Republicans signed a letter to Reid, a Nevada Democrat, saying they would vote as a bloc to uphold any provisions the Senate parliamentarian rules out of order because they arent related to the budget.

Arcane Process

“The misuse of the arcane process of reconciliation — a process intended for deficit reduction — to enact substantive policy changes is an undemocratic disservice to our people and to the Senates institutional role,” the senators wrote.

Senator Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, also posed the threat of legal challenges unless Obama signs the Senate bill into law before reconciliation measures are considered. House Democrats want to pass the changes in tandem with the Senate bill because they dont like many of its provisions.

“I see a court case being filed immediately if in fact that happens,” Coburn said. “You cannot reconcile something that is not law.”

Pelosi, a California Democrat, told reporters that House and Senate Democrats are “very close” to producing the package of reconciliation changes.

Differences are being “resolved because we have defined a solution and because we have no more time to think about it,” Pelosi said. “The decision time is here and thats it.”

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Conversely, Obamas job-performance standing is holding fairly steady at 53 percent. And over the past two months, the Democrat has gained ground on national security issues, specifically the subsiding Iraq war and the escalating Afghanistan war, as he has spent most of his time - at least publicly - on domestic matters like the economy and health care. On those issues, he still has the support of about half the people.

“I agree with what Obama is trying to do, but nobody is listening to him,” said Grace Pope of Waterville, Maine. But this 75-year-old Democrat added, “I dont think that the Congress is doing anything.”

Such sentiments and the surveys results make clear that Obama remains far more popular than House and Senate members as he leads a Democratic Party facing a volatile election-year environment that, so far, seems to be trending in Republicans favor. Judging by his standing at this point, Obama seems to be an asset for his rank and file.

But, given the fickleness of this electorate, the uncertainty of the health care debate and the stubbornly high unemployment rate, the president could just as quickly turn into a liability. His own clout will be on the line in the first midterm elections of his presidency. And the outcome is certain to shape the remainder of his first term, if not his likely re-election bid in 2012.

For now, its unclear just how much Obama can do to prevent midterm election shellackings. Democrats lost recent statewide elections in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Virginia even though he campaigned for them. Presidents typically lose House and Senate seats in their first midterm elections. And the party in power usually bears the brunt of voters ire when the country is in turmoil.

Thus, another of the polls findings may not bode well for Obama and his Democrats: A clear majority of Americans - 56 percent - now say the country is headed in the wrong direction.

Democrat Benny Newman of Tulsa, Okla., laid the blame for the nations ills on both Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress.

“Just bundle them in the same bag,” said Newman, who at 79 just lost a job with a local public school district because of budget woes. “I dont think either one of them is interested in the general public. … Theyre always stalling, playing politics, trying to jockey for a better position for their own re-election.”

In recent weeks, Obama has increasingly blamed the ways of Washington for a lack of progress on his agenda - even though hes in the White House and his party is leading Congress. The disparity between his popularity and Congress shows his pitch may just be working.

Obamas overall standing hasnt really moved since January. Neither have his ratings on health care and the economy.

But his marks have jumped on Iraq and Afghanistan. More than half of people approve of how hes handling the wars, with 55 percent backing him on Iraq and 57 percent supporting him on Afghanistan. Thats compared with 49 percent for each two months ago. The new poll was taken during weekend elections in Iraq, where a U.S. troop drawdown is under way, and in the midst of a buildup in Afghanistan, as the U.S. notches victories in rooting out suspected terrorists.

It is quite unusual for voters to tear down their own member of Congress. People often dislike the institution of Congress but usually support their own representatives. But not this year. Half said they wanted to elect someone other than their current congressman; only 40 percent wanted to re-elect their lawmaker.

“I dont think anybody up there is doing a good job. … We need to get rid of them all and institute term limits,” said Republican John Campbell, 52, of Del Rio, Texas, a warden at a federal detention center. He castigated Washington as full of “cronies” and Congress as a “bunch of entitled prima donnas.”

“Washington,” he said, “is broke.”

As poor as the ratings are for Congress in general, people seem slightly more unhappy with Republicans than Democrats - another bit of potentially good news for Obamas party.

Just 30 percent approve of how Republicans in Congress are doing their jobs compared with 36 percent for Democrats.

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