Worst. Congress. Ever. - By Norman Ornstein | Foreign Policy

This is not the usual lament.  It is a careful historical analysis by a seasoned Republican student of the Congress.  His diagnosis: Republicans refuse to govern - i.e. refuse to make the compromises that responsible governance requires. - GWC

"For the first time ever, in the 111th Congress that convened during the first two years of the Obama presidency, the National Journal's vote ratings showed that the most conservative Democratic senator was to the left of the most liberal Republican. There is now no overlap ideologically at all between the parties. Only nine of the remaining small number of conservative House Democrats (now called "Blue Dogs") were to the right of the most liberal House Republican. That Republican, Mike Castle of Delaware, was dumped by his party in a primary as he ran for the Senate and is now out of Congress, as are the bulk of the Blue Dogs."

Worst. Congress. Ever. - By Norman Ornstein | Foreign Policy: "Dana Carvey had a character during his years on Saturday Night Live who was a crotchety old man complaining about how much better everything was 'in my day,' the imagined halcyon times of his past. After almost 42 years immersed in the politics of Congress, I have to check myself regularly to avoid falling into the same trap. When I came to Washington in 1969, for example, the city was riven with division and antagonism over the Vietnam War, which segued into the impeachment of a president, followed by many other difficult and contentious moments. In this case, though, Carvey's old man would be right: The hard reality is that for all their rancor, those times were more functional, or at least considerably less dysfunctional, than what we face with Congress today."