Ajax post responseText is blank in IE 7 and 8

Ajax post responseText is blank in IE 7 and 8

Hi, been struggling with this all day.

The following code executes as expected in Chrome, Safari, and FireFox. In IE 7 and 8, however, the responseText never gets delivered back to the JS.

var response = $.ajax({type: "POST",
     url:'cup_verify.php?p=ark',
     data: poemRatingData,
     async: false                  
}).responseText;
$("p.rating_number").html(response);


I tried cache: false to no avail.

Any thoughts? Known issue?