Congressional Republicans and conservative analysts are doing a lot of handwringing over how to deal with funding the government while NOT funding Obama’s executive actions that will provide amnesty to (potentially 5 million) illegal aliens.

Democrats and their media lapdogs invoke the terrible consequences Republicans will face if a government funding impasse occurs, and Obama refuses to sign GOP bills.

Rush Limbaugh leads critical conservative voices that point out Republicans just won huge in an election less than a year after the last ‘shutdown’ occurred. Consequences?

So, how is it, if polling indicates Republicans always get blamed when a government shutdown occurs, November midterm election results benefited them so significantly?

We suggest misinterpretation of the polling data is a factor, combined with another phenomenon pointed out by Jay Cost of The Weekly Standard…GOP honesty.

First, for those polled as ‘disapproving’ of how issues are being handled between Parties, pollsters invariably consider ‘disapprove’ as a negative consequence.

But, what if that answer includes those who think their Party isn’t going far enough? In such an instance, ‘disapprove’ numbers don’t necessarily correlate to lost votes.

Which brings us to Jay Cost’s article: he noted that polled Republicans have a hugely disproportionate degree of negatively self-critiquing their own GOP political leaders.

Which could indicate voter disgust (for not going the extra mile), or dismay…that not having the power to go the extra mile motivates higher GOP voter turnout.

(We think Mr. Cost made the same mistake though, confusing a high ‘disapproval’ rate of GOP as voters disliking their Party…rather than frustration of not doing enough).

Once again, just because polled GOPers disapprove, it doesn’t mean lost votes.