Congress' approval rating, already dismal last year, has hit a new low.

Gallup found in its Feb. 2-5 survey that Congress' approval rating had sunk to 10 percent.

The rating averaged 17 percent last year, with the highest number, 24 percent, logged in May. 

But Congress was beset last year by partisan gridlock, leading to a bitter summer fight over raising the nation's debt ceiling and a pre-Christmas showdown over continuing a Social Security payroll tax cut.

"It is difficult to pinpoint any specific recent actions that may have led to the continuing deterioration in Congress' image, particularly because much of the political attention in January and early February has focused on the Republican presidential race," a Gallup analyis said.

"Congress at this point is again wrangling over the extension of the payroll tax holiday and unemployment benefits -- both of which were temporarily extended late last year in a short-term fix that expires at the end of February."

1,029 people were sureyed. Margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

 Mitt Romney's now using former "NBC Nightlly News" anchor Tom Brokaw to help make the case against Newt Gingrich.

In an ad released Saturday, Romney, vying for the GOP presidential nomination against the former House Speaker and two othres, brings up the 1997 House of Representatives vote to reprimand Gingrich for ethical lapses.

In the ad, the viewer sees Brokaw delivering the news that night:

“Good evening. Newt Gingrich, who came to power, after all, preaching a higher standard in American politics, a man who brought down another speaker on ethics accusations, tonight he has on his own record the judgment of his peers, Democrat and Republican alike. By an overwhelming vote, they found him guilty of ethics violations; they charged him a very large financial penalty, and they raised – several of them – raised serious questions about his future effectiveness.”

If Republicans nominate Newt Gingrich, "it will have an adverse impact on Republican candidates running for county, state, and federal offices," former Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole, the GOP's 1996 presidential nominee, said in an "open letter" Thursday.

"Hardly anyone who served with Newt in Congress has endorsed him and that fact speaks for itself. He was a one-man-band who rarely took advice. It was his way or the highway," Dole said.

Dole was Senate leader while Gingrich was House Speaker from 1995 to 1999.

Dole recalled Gingrich's $300,000 penalty for ethics violations. "I know whereof I speak as I helped establish a line of credit of $150,000 to help Newt pay off the fine for his ethics violations. In the end, he paid the fine with money from other sources," Dole said.

He also blasted Gingrich's intellect.

"Gingrich had a new idea every minute and most of them were off the wall.  He loved picking a fight with Bill Clinton because he knew this would get the attention of the press," Dole recalled.

"In my run for the presidency in 1996 the Democrats greeted me with a number of negative TV ads and in every one of them Newt was in the ad.  He was very unpopular and I am not only certain that this did not help me, but that it also cost House seats that year.

"Newt would show up at the campaign headquarters with an empty ice-bucket in his hand—that was a symbol of some sort for him—and I never did know what he was doing or why he was doing it.

"In my opinion if we want to avoid an Obama landslide in November, Republicans should nominate Governor Romney as our standard bearer. He has the requisite experience in the public and private sectors. He would be a president we could have confidence in."

Nancy Pelosi, former House Speaker and now minority leader, makes it clear what she thinks of Newt Gingrich's prospects for becoming president: Not going to happen, she told CNN's John King.

Here's the transcript:

KING:  Because of your history with Speaker Gingrich, what goes through your mind when you think about the possibility, which is more real today than it was a week or a month ago, that he would be the Republican nominee and that you could come back here next January or next February with a President Gingrich?

PELOSI:  Let me just say this.  That will never happen. 

KING:  Why? 

PELOSI:  He's not going to be president of the United States.  This is -- that's not going to happen.  Let me just make my prediction and stand by it.  It isn't going to happen. 

KING:  Why are you so sure? 

PELOSI:  There's something I know.  The Republicans, if they choose to nominate him, that's the prerogative.  I don't even think that's going to happen. 

Mitt Romney offered his own State of the Union speech Tuesday, warning voters that President Barack Obama Tuesday will "will give a nice speech with a lot of memorable phrases.  But he won’t give you the hard numbers" that show an economy still struggling.

Tonight, Romney said, "the President will deliver his State of the Union.  But make no mistake: What he’s really offering are partisan planks for his re-election campaign." 

Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who's seeking the Republican presidential nomination, went point by point during a speech at a Tampa area factory, explaining why he'd be very different from Obama.

"Tonight, President Obama will make the opening argument in his campaign against a 'Do Nothing Congress.'  But, we shouldn’t forget that for two years, this President had a Congress that could do everything he wanted," Romney said. Democrats controlled both Houses of Congress during the first two years of Obama's presidency.

"With huge Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, President Obama was free to pursue any policy he pleased," Romney recalled. "Did he fix the economy? Did he tackle the housing crisis? Did he get Americans back to work? No."

The jobless rate has dropped significant in recent months.

"Three years ago, we measured Candidate Obama by his hopeful promises and slogans," Romney said. "Today, President Obama has amassed an actual record of debt, decline, and disappointment. 

 "This President’s agenda made these troubled times last longer.  He and his allies made it harder for the economy to recover."

And, Romney said, "He leads the party of big government.  He believes in ever-expanding entitlement. He’s wrong.  We’re right.  And this is a battle we cannot lose."

Nothing happens in Congress at the speed of the Internet, unless the Internet gets mad.

Two days after a widespread Internet protest of congressional efforts to crack down on Internet piracy, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Friday postponed a vote scheduled for next week on the Protect IP Act, the Senate version of the House's Stop Online Piracy Act. The lead sponsor of the House bill, Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, withdrew that bill Friday, although many lawmakers still agree that Congress needs to do something to stop offshore websites from illegally hosting copyrighted content.

It was a huge victory for the technology industry and a huge defeat for the powerful entertainment and publishing industries. Lawmakers in both parties abandoned the bills in droves starting Wednesday after thousands of websites including Google, Wikipedia, Craigslist, Reddit and others either went dark for the day or publicly registered their opposition to the bills, and directed web users to lawmakers' homepages.

An alternative bill called OPEN, sponsored by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., could prove more palatable to the technology sector because it addresses a key sticking point in the other bills, giving enforcement power over foreign websites to the International Trade Commission instead of the Justice Department. Civil liberties groups objected to the idea of the government potentially censoring Internet content, and Internet companies didn't like the idea that they might have to monitor their users or face the threat of legal action if they failed to take down rogue websites.

You probably knew that Wikipedia, Reddit, Craigslist and numerous other websites shut down today in protest of legislation to curb Internet piracy. But add one unintentional participant: the homepage of Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio.

The freshman senator tweeted this morning that he'd withdraw his support for the Senate version of the legislation, which comes up for a vote next Tuesday. Hours later, his Senate website went down.

On the House side, Arizona Rep. Ben Quayle (yes, the son of former vice president Dan Quayle), withdrew his support for the Stop Online Piracy Act. As of midafternoon, his website was still up.

Here's Rubio's tweet:

After hearing from people with legit concerns, have withdraw support for #PIPA. Let's take time to do it right. http://on.fb.me/xxAl4F #SOPA

A town hall meeting held by U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry in Gaston County, N.C. ended abruptly Thursday after a verbal confrontation between the North Carolina congressman and a political opponent challenging him in the upcoming Republican primary, according to The Gaston Gazette.

Ken Fortenberry, a weekly newspaper publisher in Denver, N.C., questioned the congressman from Cherryville while McHenry discussed the need for transparency in financial products and recommended that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be “cut off from taxpayers.” The Gazette reports Fortenberry stood up and asked McHenry how he could say these things knowing he’d accepted money from similar institutions.

“If they support my campaign, so be it,” McHenry replied. McHenry thanked Fortenberry for attending, but said that he was intending to have a town hall meeting and not a political debate. After Fortenberry left, a Gaston County Commissioner brought the meeting to an end.

Looks like Mitt Romney likes Michele Bachmann.

After she left the Republican presidential race, Romney praised the Minnesota congresswoman, saying her "tenacity and leadership inspires millions."

Here's his statement:

 “Ann and I salute Congresswoman Bachmann. She ran a campaign to advance the principles of limited government that I hold dear. Michele is a friend and a strong competitor. Her tenacity on the campaign trail and her fierce intelligence in the debates have left me no doubt that, as advertised, she does indeed have a titanium spine. Michele inspires millions of Americans by the way she has lived her life, raised her family and served her country. With leaders of her caliber coming up the ranks, the future of the Republican Party – and the future of the country – is bright.”