Poll analysis - The Charlie Cook version

Charlie Cook is making my point about hardening negative opinion in the polls citing 'strong diapproval' of the Bush presidency between 42-47 percent in the last three major polls. But it's this paragraph that caught me.

There comes a point for some unfortunate presidents when the American people begin to hit the mute button; they just stop listening. Or to put it differently, when the public turns strongly against an elected official on an issue, they begin to turn on that official on everything. In this case, Iraq has become a ball and chain for President Bush, weighing him down on every issue. The separation between his weakest issue, Iraq, and his strongest, terrorism, is just five points.

Now does the mute button extend to Congressional Republicans? I don't know.