Today Gallup released a poll showing that Americans disapprove of Congress by a 2 to 1 margin: 31% approve/62% disapprove:

But the macro numbers don’t tell the whole story because they hide a deep partisan divide.

The 111th Congress, led by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, appears to be meeting the expectations of most rank-and-file Democrats, earning a respectable 55% job approval rating from Democrats nationwide in early August. In turn, Democratic support has kept Congress’ overall rating above 30% thus far in 2009 — a respectable level in the history of congressional approval ratings. No doubt the transition from a Republican presidential administration to a Democratic one has helped improve Democratic satisfaction with the job Congress is doing.

At the same time, the 22% approval rating of Congress from independents is little improved over last year, and not much better than the meager 13% rating from Republicans. And the descent in approval among independents and Republicans since March suggests that the same legislative activity in recent months that is satisfying to the Democratic base (including healthcare reform) may be draining support for Congress elsewhere.