Norman Ornstein
Norman Ornstein
Norman J. Ornsteinis a political scientist and resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington D.C. conservative think tank. He was the co-writerof It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEducator
CountryUnited States of America
ability corruption creating direct dramatic environment expansion federal fertile funds individual members
When you have a dramatic expansion of the ability of individual members to direct federal funds or to designate contracts, you are creating the most fertile environment for corruption imaginable.
address against beginning larger philosophy protective questions roberts specter thinks
I think Specter is going to be protective of Roberts against what he thinks are intrusive questions. But if he thinks Roberts is not even beginning to address larger questions of philosophy of judging, then I think he'll be unhappy.
belief blanket genuine good heads hoping jump members pulling storm
Some members are pulling the blanket over their heads and hoping the storm will pass. For others, there is also a genuine belief that if you just jump in a spasm of reaction, you could do some things detrimental to a good deliberative process.
blame doubt inadequate plus top
That would have been a big plus for the president. You get the blame when you're the top dog. And in this case, I think there is no doubt that we had inadequate preparation and we've had inadequate response.
clearly unethical
What she did just makes you cringe. It's clearly unethical by any standard.
build feet people positions power visibility
We build people up who have positions of power or visibility and venerate them and then have to show they have feet of clay.
government recognize regulation role smaller society solutions wherever
Conservatives want smaller government. They want to focus on market-based solutions wherever one can. They want to have as little regulation as possible. But in general, they recognize that government must play an important role for a society to operate.
radicals traditions
Radicals don't care about the institutions. They are looking for an ideological crusade. Traditions don't matter.
country depend enterprise federal government health highway inevitably private role state system
Government is inevitably going to play a very significant role in infrastructure, and in a country with a federal system where vibrancy and economic health depend on interstate commerce, it's not going to be private enterprise or state governments that will give you things like an interstate highway system.
money people smart
You have smart people and a lot of money at stake. People are going to find loopholes.
breathing complete matter room themselves ugly
What they've done, at least, is to give themselves a little breathing room from what was going to be a really ugly confrontation, and one that was a complete lose-lose for Republicans, no matter what.
defending extreme last members tough wind
There is extreme nervousness about November. The last thing that members want is to be out there in a tough campaign, where the wind is at your face, defending the indefensible.
ability agenda occurred onto push terrible
But, after the terrible lapses that occurred here, they are going to be on the defensive, and the ability to push other things onto the agenda will be limited.
gives good left president time
Having a lot of time left as president is a good thing for him, because it gives him the opportunities and time to get out of some of these holes.