A recent Quinnipiac University poll found that Senator Chris Dodd’s disapproval rating has risen to 34 percent.

That’s a percentage spinmeisters in the White House might sacrifice animals to achieve. But in Connecticut, where fedpols have grown used to an army of sycophants, fawning mainstream-media coverage, and all-but-guaranteed reelection, when a third of the populace sours on you, it’s a crisis. (Dodd’s approval rating has plummeted to 51 percent!)

Connecticut’s right often ponders why a place with so many economic problems can continue to elect state legislators who are committed to making the quality of life here even worse. But perhaps more puzzling are the six men and one woman Nutmeggers send to Washington. A strong case can be made that they comprise the worst congressional delegation in America.

The Club for Growth’s 2007 Congressional Scorecard, using a scale from 0 (worst) to 100 (best), measures “just how dedicated … representatives and senators are to free markets and fiscal conservatism.” Connecticut congresscritters’ average grade was 9.3 last year, with Rosa DeLauro, the congresswoman from greater New Haven, “earning” a perfect 0. Connecticut’s delegation consistently voted against pro-growth policies, such as the permanent enactment of the Bush administration’s tax cuts, repeal of the federal death tax, and expansion of free trade.

The Club’s findings were confirmed by Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), which also uses a 100-point system for its ratings. The delegation’s average score for votes tracked by ATR in 2007 was 7.9. (Four of the seven pols received scores of 0.) Both farm subsidies and intimidation tactics by unions were favored by the folks from Connecticut, while legislation to expand the healthcare market through interstate sales of insurance was opposed.

In addition, not one member of Connecticut’s delegation has signed ATR’s “Taxpayer Protection Pledge,” which commits politicians to oppose “any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates for individuals and/or businesses” and “any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates.”

The most comprehensive report card is produced by the National Taxpayers Union (NTU). The group doesn’t track the outcomes of a few dozen bills, but rather “every vote that significantly affects taxes, spending, debt, and regulatory burdens on consumers and taxpayers.” Once again, the delegation performed atrociously. Its 2007 average score was 9.9. (Remember, the highest score is 100.)

Connecticut’s newest members of the House of Representatives, Chris Murphy and Joe Courtney, both received scores of 0 from ATR last year. Courtney bested his colleague in the Club for Growth’s scorecard, 6 to 1. NTU’s rating gave Murphy the edge, 6 to 5.

What about the “conservative” members of Connecticut’s delegation, Senator Joseph Lieberman and Representative Christopher Shays? Here are the former’s scores: Club for Growth 8, ATR 5, NTU 11. Lieberman’s voting record resembles that of Barbara Boxer’s, not Sam Brownback’s. (History will not be kind to the conservatives who overlooked Lieberman’s atrocious domestic-policy votes due to his maniacal devotion to the invasion and occupation of Iraq.)

As for “Both Ways” Shays, New England’s last “Republican” congressman, he only fared well in comparison to his Democratic colleagues. For all three ratings, his scores were half those of the average Republican in the House of Representatives in 2007.

This year isn’t looking any better. In February, Shays and Representative Jim Langevin, a liberal Democrat from Rhode Island, proposed the “American Health Benefits Program Act of 2008.” The legislation promises to “provide every American with access to the same quality, affordable coverage as members of Congress.” It would establish a Health Benefits Administration (HBA) to “assume the primary responsibility for negotiating health benefit packages for all Americans.” Everyone not already on the federal healthcare dole would be required to purchase insurance by HBA-approved providers. Who pays? “The government will make all premium payments to health insurance plans and will then be responsible for collecting the enrollee share of the premium.”

The scores can be parsed in countless ways, but even the congressional delegations of Vermont, Hawaii, and Massachusetts are arguably less hostile to taxpayers than the pols that “represent” Connecticut in D.C.

As the Nutmeg State’s population continues to stagnate -- and possibly even decline in the years and decades to come -- demographers believe the state will likely lose a seat in the House of Representatives in 2020, as it did in 2000.

One fewer representative probably won’t impact Nutmeggers much, for good or ill. But the nation should be delighted that Connecticut’s hopelessly out-of-touch congressional delegation is growing smaller.