. >> brown: judy woodruff talks with veteran congress-watchers thomas mann and norman ornstein, about extreme partisanship, the subject of their new book, "it's even worse than it looks." >> we've never seen it this dysfunctional so unfortunately the title may be alarmist, but it's true. >> suarez: and we close with a look at the record-breaking $120 million price tag for one of the world's most recognizable images, "the scream" by edvard munch. >> brown: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> citi turns 200 this year. in that time, there have been some good days and some difficult ones. but through it all, we persevered, supporting some of the biggest ideas in modern history. so why should our anniversary matter to you? because for 200 years, we've been helping ideas move from ambition to achievement. and the next great idea could be yours. at&t >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy productive life. >> and with the ongoing support of these

the authors, norman ornstein and thomas mann. gentlemen, thank you for joining us.f it is even worse, what exactly is worse? [laughter] guest: we are in a situation in which we have a fundamental mismatch between our political parties, which have become intensely polarized, and operate much like parties in a parliamentary system. vehemently oppositional. no collaboration. drive . -- drawing the line. they're operating in a power system, in which our founders anticipated collaboration, negotiation, compromise. the two coming together produce governmental this function across the board. host: the opening chapters with a look at the debates over the debt ceiling. what has changed in that process? guest: we did a presentation anked eek in which i th richard murdock for compromising. now, we're seeing it again in the most destructive way. it shows that we have our title -- the system always looks rambunctious. that is how it is set up. now, we have something that is different because you cannot solve basic problems by compromise. the second part of it is is that we have

talking like a real conservative here, but you sound like congressional scholars thomas mann and norman ornsteinitate to blame the gop for the dysfunction we're seeing in washington. they write: and ultimately they say the only way to punish this kind of extremism is to reget it at the polls. is that what conservative voters need to do? >> yes, absolutely. to the extent you can even call them the right -- and i'm not sure you can even do that, because as i point out, they are really not defined by what they are for, they define themselves by what they are [ inaudible ], that's not an ideology or a if is sfy, but i call them the new right. >> right. >> but, yes -- sometimes i use -- i hate calling myself this, the rabbit right, because it fits so well. they have become so extreme that they are literally out of touch with reality. >> well, you are a fascinating man, sir, because you left the republican party, or haven't considered yourself a republican since 1982. what made you depart? >> the reagan administration supported huge tax hikes, and i thought isn't that why god invented democrats? >> so

last week, we talked with congressional scholars thomas mann and norman ornstein about their book, "it's even worse that it looks." they put the blame for they put the blame for congress' inability to resolve budget and other problems primarily on republicans. for a different perspective, i sat down earlier today with another author, republican senator tom coburn of oklahoma. senator tom coburn, thank you very much for talking with us. >> i'm happy to talk with you. >> woodruff: you've written a book entitled "the debt bomb." what is it? what caused it? >> both parties have caused it. careerism has caused it. you're seeing it played out today in washington before this election. nobody wants to make the hard choices. nobody wants to be totally honest with the american people when, in fact, we can get reelected without doing so so we've built programs-- well intentioned, compassionate hearts and haven't put the revenues to pay for them and haven't done the oversight on things we've done with good intentions to clean them up and make sure they're not wasteful. so what we've created is a sit

corp. 2012] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> tomorrow, thomas mann and norman ornstein discusses" it's even worse than it looks." then chris chocola looks at the record of republicans that affiliate with the tea party. after that, timothy ferris on activity of the sun. plus you're e-mails, phone calls and tweets. live wednesday 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> right now i want you to look around you and thing not about where everyone has been but where there are going. the guy in front of you could win an academy award sunday. the group behind you could be a future president of the united states or even better than that, the mayor of new york city. the guide to the right could be a future nobel laureate. maybe not the one to your right, but certainly the one to your left. >> watch commencement addresses. leaders share their thoughts about the class of 2012. next, a form on fact checking the 2012 campaigns. journalists examine some of the claims made by mitt romney and president obama's campaigns. >> and good morning and welcome. we would like to welcome you to our mornin