Norman Ornstein

Biography

Norman Ornstein is a long-time observer of Congress and politics. He writes a weekly column for Roll Call and is an election analyst for CBS News. He serves as co-director of the AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project and participates in AEI`s Election Watch series. He also serves as a senior counselor to the Continuity of Government Commission.

Mr. Ornstein led a working group of scholars and practitioners that helped shape the law, known as McCain-Feingold, that reformed the campaign financing system. He was elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2004. His many books include The Permanent Campaign and Its Future (AEI Press, 2000); he coauthored The Broken Branch: How Congress is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track (Oxford University Press, 2006); and, most recently, Vital Statistics on Congress 2008 (Brookings Institution Press, 2008), also coauthored.

Publications

The Permanent Campaign and Its Future

We live in the age of the "permanent campaign," when the line between campaigning and governing has blurred, when pollsters are consulted on nearly every matter of policy, and when the old congressional customs of comity have given way to roll call votes designed solely to frame campaign commercials.

The Permanent Campaign and Its Future is the first comprehensive scholarly examination of this new political condition--its origin and causes, its impact on politics and policy, its glorification of the pollster, and its consequences for institutions such as the Congress and the courts and for mechanisms such as the traditional appointments process. The eminent political scientists who contribute to the book weigh the benefits and the costs of this state of permanent campaign and describe the kind of political system that is likely to emerge within it.

Titles

What`s So Funny About Washington

Understanding the Upcoming Election

The Politics of Health Policy