Check out these numbers from the latest ABC/Washington Post
poll (Sep. 15 results) on what Republicans did to themselves during their government shutdown:
Barack Obama, net approval: -1 (0)
Democratic Party, net favorability: -3 (+7)
Republican Party, net favorability: -31 (-14)
Tea Party, net favorability: -33 (-14)
So while Democrats and President Obama saw their net ratings drop by 10 and 1 points, respectively, Republicans and tea partiers saw their ratings drop by 17 and 19 points, respectively.
But the fact that Republicans and tea partiers saw their numbers go down more than their Democratic counterparts is only part of the story: The other part of the story is that the GOP's numbers went down by more despite starting out in the toilet.
Essentially, Republicans had less room to drop than Democrats because they started out even lower. Yet despite already starting out in an even worse position than Democrats position, they tanked even harder. And that's really good news for future House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.