with us, former congressmen, john and dan clickman.tter and talk about it. let me start. congress appears gripped by zero-sum game partisanship. the goal often seems to be more to devastate the other side than to find common ground to solve problems. the divisive and mean-spirited way debate often occurs inside congress is encouraged and repeated outsite. members that far exceed the bounds of respectful discourse are not viewed with shame but are lionized and treated as celebrity, rewarded with cable television appearances and enlisted as magnets for campaign fund-raisers. >>> mr. porter, let's start with you. how did you get the idea to do this letter and what are you hoping it accomplishes? >> the u.s. association of former members of congress had a symposium. part of that was on civility and respect. david skaggs was on that panel. i said to myself, we can't just leave this here. we got together with david and we put together this letter. we got help in writing it. david did a lot of the work writing it. the association helped us ga