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
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.
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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.
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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.
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Lots of members have been appalled at the kind of Gilded Age mentality of the party. Others felt like they had to take one for the team.
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Congress as a whole needs to step back and look at the way it conducts its business. It's not just lobbyists influencing members of Congress, it's members of Congress shaking down lobbyists for money.
believes gratuitous growing members personal shots sure taking tired
I'm sure that he's growing a little tired of members taking what he believes are gratuitous personal shots at him,
branch congress executive involving members people positions system
It's a self-perpetuating system involving interests, members of Congress, people in the executive branch and patronage positions and so on.
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.
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.
money people smart
You have smart people and a lot of money at stake. People are going to find loopholes.