A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll came out today, showing that only 16% of the public supports the work of the current Congress. 16%! And 75% disapprove. Now, the public always looks down on the Congress a bit, but never by this much. The last time it was so low was in October 1994. But even then, it wasn’t this low. In October 1994, 24% approved of Congress, with 67% disapproving. We know what happened that November.

What I always find striking is Republican complaints that with an “improving economy” the public should be looking at the Congress and the GOP more favorably. But if I can recall, in late 1994 the country was also coming out of a major recession and had already shown major progress. It didn’t seem to help the Democrats, however, because the growth early on was so uneven. California was still in recession until 1995, for example, as were many other places that got hit in the real estate crash. The economic numbers looked good in October 1994, but not enough to matter.

Anyway, this number is absolutely toxic for the GOP, and it shows that a landslide may be coming.