Thursday, October 05, 2006

The Broken Branch Author: Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein Publisher: Oxford University Press ASIN: 0195174461

About This Book

Writers Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein focus their considerable insight on Congress, the first branch of government in the American system, claiming that it is now a broken branch damaged by partisan bickering and internal rancor. The Broken Branch offers a brilliant diagnosis of the cause of Congressional decline and a much-needed blueprint for change. The writers, who understand politics and revere our institutions, truly lament that Congress has become so deeply dysfunctional.

Mann and Ornstein bring to light the historical roots of Congress's current maladies, examining 40 years of uninterrupted Democratic control of the House and the stunning midterm election victory of 1994 that propelled Republicans into the majority in both House and Senate. The byproduct of that long and grueling but ultimately successful Republican campaign, the authors reveal, was a weakened institution bitterly divided between the parties.

The writers highlight the dramatic shift in Congress from a highly decentralized, committee-based institution into a much more regimented one in which party increasingly trumps committee. The resultant changes in the policy process - the demise of regular order, the decline of deliberation and the weakening of our system of checks and balances - have compromised the role of Congress in the American Constitutional system.

When Speaker Dennis Hastert unabashedly states that his primary responsibility is to pass the president's legislative program, he identifies himself more as a lieutenant of the president than a steward of the house. From tax cuts to bankruptcy "reform" to the war against Saddam Hussein to a Medicare prescription drug benefit, the legislative process has been bent to serve immediate presidential interests and have often resulted in poorly crafted and stealthily passed laws. Strong majority leadership in Congress, the authors conclude has led to a general passivity in the face of executive power.

A vivid portrait of an institution that has fallen far from the aspirations of our Founding Fathers, The Broken Branch highlights the costs of a malfunctioning Congress to national policymaking, and outlines what must be done to repair the damage.

About the authors

Thomas E. Mann is the W. Averell Harriman Chair and Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at The Brookings Institution. The author of numerous books on American government, and a contributor to major magazines and newspapers like Washington Post and New York Times, he is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Mann has served as co-director (with Ornstein) of the Transition to Governing Project and senior counselor (with Ornstein) to the Continuity of Government Commission.

Norman J. Ornstein is a Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. An election analyst for CBS News, he writes a weekly column called "Congress Inside Out" for Roll Call. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and Foreign Affairs, and he appears regularly on television programs like The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Nightline , and Charlie Rose . He serves on the board of the Public Broadcasting Service and several other nonprofit groups. Like Mann, he is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.