Sideshow: Root canals are more popular than Congress

>>> the "sideshow." first jon stewart trips to grapple with the house republicans who voted against hurricane sandy relief money. it's not easy.

>> couple months ago america was hit by two major disasters. one of them natural, hurricane sandy and one of them somewhat man made the republican majority in the house of representatives . now, the second of those diss a it ters is pretty much making it impossible to clean up the first one.

>> 67 republicans voted against 9. $7 billion in aid for victims of superstorm sandy.

>> what possible reason could you have for voting against aid to hurricane victims by way of a flood reimbursement fund? what did the eastern seaboard ever do to any of you?

>> paul ryan joins 66 other republicans in voting against it.

>> okay, well, i know what the eastern seaboard did to him. look, republicans, i get -- [ cheers and applause ] i get that you're the party of limited government. but we're not talking about obama care here. this is two paragraphs giving aid to people in need and you still couldn't bring yourselves to vote for it because of some stupid principle that you yourselves only occasionally live by. if you can't vote for this then year [ bleep ] for the next two years. i'm not saying you are responsible for all the problems facing our country but you sure are making them harder to fix.

>>> steve palazzo, one of the no votes on sandy relief, tried to get underer funding for his own state after hurricane katrina . turns out he's got company. think progress put together a list of 37 house republicans who voted against sandy funding but who have in the past supported federal disaster funds for their home states.

>>> a new pp p poll asked people to compare congress with some other raements of american life . the good news is here are foo new things congress beat out in terms of popularity. playground bullies, meth labs, and lindsay lohan . anysway, the bad side, congress came out less popular than that stuff. nfl replacement refs, used car salesmen, and root canals. overall favorability bability for congress stands at 9%. that's out of 100%.

>>> bill m maher is not done needling mitt romney .

>> the election is behind us. mitt romney is -- what's going on? the career over for him in politics?

>> you know, that's what everybody says. i am not of that opinion. he's going to be running again forever.

>> he won't run again.

>> are you kidding? ever since the apollo astronauts accidentally brought his egg back from space in 1971 , he has been programmed to run for president. long after you and i are dead and gone, jay, when there is nothing but roaches and plastic bags, there will be mitt romney singing " god bless america " in a hazmat suit .

>> i think mitt romney will forever be the candidate the comedians compare to a cone head.

>>> and today marks the birthday of elvis presley the king of rock and roll . he'd be 78 today. it's i am possible i believe to overestimate this man's importance to our country's history and i mean it. he is the king.

>>> up next, the tea party took over the republican party and now the tea party may be coming apart at its seams. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics.