Ornstein lays blame for polorized DC at the feet of the GOP

To contact us Click HERE
Norm Ornstein has been a resident scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute (the think tank that brought us the war in Iraq and they hope Iran) for many years now. Given how AEI unceremoniously dumped David Frum for being critical of the GOP response to healthcare reform, one wonders how much longer Norm can hang on.

Ornstein has just released a book blaming much of the polarization in Washington on the Republican party. As a prelude to the book release, Ornstein published an OP/ED in the WaPo on April 28 dumping on the GOP. Here's the money quote,

The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.
When one party moves this far from the mainstream, it makes it nearly impossible for the political system to deal constructively with the country’s challenges.

.... Many self-styled bipartisan groups, in their search for common ground, propose solutions that move both sides to the center, a strategy that is simply untenable when one side is so far out of reach.

It's hard to imagine Ornstein lasting much longer at AEI, although he certainly doesn't seem to feel any pressure to lighten up.

Here he appears on an ABC News Web Only show explaining just how differently Democrats treated Bush in 2000 compared to Obama's treatment 8 years later.