mr. ornstein, very quickly, what's the premise of your book? >> guest: first, i have to say, peter, that we've been with c-span since the beginning, and i've got pictures in my office on the fifth anniversary of c-span which was a very long time ago. >> guest: and i was on the panel. [laughter] >> guest: with a very young newt gingrich among others. [laughter] a very thin newt gingrich, too, but that's a different story. this is a book really about the reality that in 43 years that the two of us have been immersed in the politics of washington from one end of pennsylvania avenue to the other, we have never seen it this dysfunctional. the disfunction is at a critical mass, and we felt we had to speak out about how the problem is, as the book says, even worse than it looks. it never looks good. and we have to talk about who's at fault and what we can do to get out of it. half the book is about how we can get out of this mess. >> guest: the argument, basically, is twofold. one, we have now polarized political parties internally, homogeneous, very

mr. ornstein, what is the premise of your book? >> i have to say we have been with c-span since the beginning and have pictures of moderating sessions on the fifth anniversary of c-span which is a very long time ago. >> and i was on the panel. >> of very young and newt gingrich, among others. [laughter] a very thin and newt gingrich, too, but that is a different story. this is a book about the reality that in 43 years the two of us have been immersed in politics of washington from one in the pennsylvania avenue to the other we have never seen it this dysfunctional. it is at a critical mass, and we felt we had to speak out about how the problem is, as the book says, even worse than it looks. we have to talk about who is at fault and what we can do to get out of it. half the book is about how we can get out of this mess. the argument basically is 2-fold. one, we have now polarized political parties. internally homogeneous very much at loggerhead, much like parliamentary parties, vehemently oppositional, but they have to work in a con