Lawmaker: Satan's Approval Rating Higher Than Congress'

The congressman who brought us the “sugar-coated Satan sandwich” in referring to a 2011 bipartisan debt compromise now says Lucifer’s approval rating is above Congress.

“I think that we are living in a parallel universe, because as I listened to the debate on the floor, just before I came before these cameras, I’m listening to people saying things that are absolutely irrelevant to what’s happening in people’s lives. And I think that, you know, the lower approval rating that the public has of Congress right now is going to drop it further,” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) said last night on Al Sharpton’s MSNBC show. “Now it’s already dropped down do 10 percent. And I think Satan is probably at 12 percent. So we are in real bad shape here. But it’s a parallel universe. They can’t even see what real people are going through every day.”

The Methodist minister said he’s spoken to more Republicans who would vote for a continuing resolution stripped of any Obamacare language than the media thinks.

“I have been speaking with Republicans who are not the volatile folk who are causing much of the shutdown who are saying to me very privately, to this day, that they believe that they have taken the wrong course and that they would like to see a clean bill come to the floor,” Cleaver said. “Some of them, I must add, are concerned about and afraid of their base. They think they will get a primary challenge from a tea partier, but the number is higher than 17. But the speaker, I don’t think, is going to allow that to come to the floor because it will pass, and we will get more than 17 votes.”

He called it “unfortunate that the speaker is being held captive.”

“I really believe John Boehner is a good and decent guy who would like to do the right thing. Unfortunately, he feels, I think, as though he is held back by a segment of the Republican conference. And unfortunately, he’s not, at this point, willing to stand up and say, look, I’m more interested in putting this nation on the right track than keeping my speakership,” Cleaver continued.

“Unfortunately, I do think that there are people who would probably want to remove him if he put this on the floor. But at some point, you know, you’ve got to stand up. Howard Thurman, the great preacher as you know, used to say if you step-on a worm at least it will wiggle. And so, you, I think that, you know, it’s time for the speaker to wiggle and stand up.”

In July, Cleaver compared people turned off by President Obama’s remarks on the Trayvon Martin slaying and race relations last week to vampires repelled by garlic.