An emotional debate on the Senate floor Thursday night is putting a microscope once again on the political games in Washington that Americans overwhelmingly detest.
In a rare, direct exchange between Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic Leader Harry Reid on the floor of the chamber, both senators vented frustration during a testy debate on the China currency bill.
Norm Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, thinks that those frustrated senators are mirroring an angry American electorate.
"If you came to the Senate to do things and you're mired in this bulls*** where most of your time is spent spinning wheels or just kind of like a sumo wrestler pushing against the other wrestler in the ring and neither of you moves, that gets frustrating" he said.
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tennessee, said Thursday night that "members on both sides of the aisle feel like this institution has degraded into a place that is no longer a place where any deliberation at all."
And that sentiment is back up by a Washington Post-ABC News Poll released Wednesday that shows 62 percent said they "strongly disapprove" of Congress, while only 3 percent said they "strongly approved" of what's happening on Capitol Hill.
That sentiment from the public is something that may have contributed to the tense back and forth on the floor, when a final vote on a China currency bill was tabled until next week. The debate was focused over the rights of Republicans, the minority party, to offer amendments to bills.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell protested that the "minority is out of business," while Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid shot back, "Let's get back to legislating as we did before the mantra around here was "defeat Obama."
Ornstein said that in the past Reid and McConnell have tended to keep a pretty good relationship. But now, 13 months before the election, they know that they each are playing very different roles.
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