<p>Journalist Norman Ornstein is a Washington fixture, known for covering Congress and politics in his reporting and analysis. As a member of <em>USA Today</em>'s board of contributors, a CBS News election analyst, and a regular columnist for <em>Roll Call</em>, he delivers highly respected commentary on the political process and the Washington political scene.</p><p><em>Columbia Journalism Review</em> called him "the nation's hottest pundit." And <em>National Journal</em> spotlighted him as an "icon of the press," one of the "select few (who) get quoted alone: the authorities, society's sages, those called on to deliver the final word."</p><p>Ornstein serves as a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, one of the nation's largest and most respected think tanks, and is a regular contributor to <em>The New York Times</em> and <em>The Washington Post</em>. He also led a working group of scholars and practitioners that helped shape the law, known as McCain-Feingold, which reformed the campaign financing system, and in 2004, he was elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.</p><p>Additionally, he has written and co-authored numerous books on Washington politics, including "The Permanent Campaign and Its Future", "The Broken Branch: How Congress is Failing America and How to Get it Back on Track", and :Vital Statistics on Congress", among many others.</p><p>He began his career on Capitol Hill in 1969, and today is considered amongst the upper echelon of political pundits, making regular appearances on programs such as "Nightline, "Face the Nation", and "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer". An experienced journalist in the heart of the nation's capital, Ornstein is a revered commentator and an in-demand political speaker.</p>
Respected Political Analyst & Best-Selling Author
<ul><li><strong>It's Even Worse Than It Looks: Political Polarization in Washington</strong></li><li>Nonpartisan congressional scholar Norm Ornstein discusses the hyperpartisanship that has seeped into every part of our political process. With Congress deadlocked and our two main political parties abandoning the idea of compromise, our political system is at a standstill. Ornstein identifies the two overriding problems in our institutions – the parliamentary shape our system has taken and the vehemently adversarial parties than have become ideologically extreme. With nothing happening simply for the good of the country, both sides would rather block bills they once supported than let the other Party have a “win.” While Ornstein states that there is no panacea, he does offer useful reform ideas, endorsing solutions like greater public participation, an institutional restructuring of the House and Senate, and a focus on fixing the true causes of the dysfunction rather than a rinse-and-repeat cycle of “throwing the bums out.”</li></ul>