Poll: Congress next to last in honesty

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PRINCETON, N.J., Dec. 3 (UPI) -- The U.S. Congress ranks next to last on a list of 22 professions measured by Gallup, topping only car salespeople, results released Monday indicated.

Gallup said only one in 10 Americans rate the honesty and ethical standards of congressional members as very high or high.

At 85 percent, nursing was the profession listed highest for honesty and ethics, Gallup said, followed by pharmacists at 75 percent and physicians at 70 percent.

While neither business executives nor bankers scored high on a relative basis on the honesty and ethics list, their scores were up 3 percentage points from last year, the Princeton, N.J., polling agency said.

Other professions with high honesty ratings include police officers, college teachers and the clergy, Gallup said. Less than half of Americans said they are positive about the honesty of journalists, lawyers, insurance salespeople, HMO managers, stockbrokers, car salespeople and advertising practitioners.

Results are based on nationwide telephone interviews with 1,015 adults last Monday through Thursday. The margin of error is 4 percentage points.