Ornstein, Norman J. 1948- (Norman Jay Ornstein)

PERSONAL:

Born October 14, 1948, in Grand Rapids, MN; son of Joseph and Dorothy Ornstein. Education: University of Minnesota, B.A. (magna cum laude), 1967; University of Michigan, M.A., 1968, Ph.D., 1972.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Washington, DC. Office—American Enterprise Institute, 1150 17th St., NW, Washington, DC 20036. E-mail—nornstein@aei.org.

CAREER:

Political scientist, educator, consultant, and writer. Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, instructor in political science, winter, 1971; Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Washington, DC, assistant professor of political science in Bologna, Italy, 1971-72; Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, assistant professor, 1972-76, associate professor of politics, 1976—, director of Congressional studies program, beginning 1977; American Enterprise Institute, Washington, DC, resident scholar. Also Congress: We the People, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), series editor and cohost, 1977-78; Renewing Congress Project, codirector, 1992-96; CBS News, election analyst, 1982—; Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, senior adviser, 1987—Campaign Finance Reform Working Group, founder and director, 1996—; Project to Examine Alternatives to the Independent Counsel Statute, codirector, 1997—; Transition to Governing Project, director, 2000-03; senior counselor for the Continuity of Government Commission, 2002—; Election Reform Project, codirector, 2005—. Work related activities include: professional staff member of U.S. Senate temporary select committee, 1976-77, staff director, 1977; adjunct scholar at American Enterprise Institute, beginning 1978. Lecturer at U.S. Civil Service Commission General Management Training Center, beginning 1973, and Brookings Institution, beginning 1977; lecturer to government officials, academic gatherings, and journalists, in Egypt, Turkey, Spain, Britain, Iran, Cuba, and the Soviet Union; guest on television and radio programs. Member of joint discussion group on Congress and foreign policy; member of Council on Foreign Relations and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1978-79; consultant to National Opinion Research Center, Public Broadcasting Service (board of directors), and U.S. International Communications Agency.

MEMBER:

American Political Science Association, Academy of Political Science, Council on Foreign Relations, American Film Institute, Midwest Political Science Association, Southern Political Science Association, National Capital Area Political Science Association (member of council, beginning 1975).

AWARDS, HONORS:

American Political Science Association Congressional fellowship, 1969-70; Russell Sage Foundation grant, 1973-74; elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2004.

WRITINGS:

(Special editor) Changing Congress: The Committee System, American Academy of Political and Social Science (Philadelphia, PA), 1974.

(Editor and contributor) Congress in Change: Evolution and Reform, Praeger (New York, NY), 1975.

(With Shirley Elder) Interest Group: Lobbying and Policymaking, Congressional Quarterly Press (Washington, DC), 1978.

(Editor, with Thomas E. Mann) The New Congress, American Enterprise Institute (Washington, DC), 1981.

(Editor) The Role of the Legislature in Western Democracies, American Enterprise Institute (Washington, DC), 1981.

(Editor, with Thomas E. Mann) The American Elections of 1982, American Enterprise Institute (Washington, DC), 1982.

(Editor) President and Congress: Assessing Reagan's First Year, American Enterprise Institute (Washington, DC), 1982.

Who Decides? A Citizen's Guide to Government Decision-Making on Nuclear War, United Campuses to Prevent Nuclear War (UCAM) and Common Cause (Washington, DC), 1984.

The People, the Press & Politics: The Times Mirror Study of the American Electorate, Addison-Wesley (Reading, MA), 1988.

(Editor, with John H. Makin and David Zlowe) Balancing Act: Debt, Deficits, and Taxes, American Enterprise Press (Washington, DC), 1991.

(Editor, with Mark Perlman) Political Power and Social Change: The United States Faces a United Europe, American Enterprise Press (Washington, DC), 1991.

(With Thomas E. Mann) A First Report of the Renewing Congress Project, American Enterprise Institute (Washington, DC), 1992.

(Director, with Thomas E. Mann) A Second Report of the Renewing Congress Project, American Enterprise Institute (Washington, DC), 1993.

(Editor, with Thomas E. Mann) Congress, the Press, and the Public, American Enterprise Institute (Washington, DC), 1994.

(With John H. Makin) Debt and Taxes, Times Books (New York, NY), 1994.

(Editor, with Thomas E. Mann) Intensive Care: How Congress Shapes Health Policy, American Enterprise Institute (Washington, DC), 1995.

Campaign Finance: An Illustrated Guide, American Enterprise Institute (Washington, DC), 1997.

(Editor) Lessons and Legacies: Farewell Addresses from the Senate, Addison-Wesley (Reading, MA), 1997.

(Editor, with Thomas E. Mann) The Permanent Campaign and Its Future, American Enterprise Institute (Washington, DC), 2000.

(Author of foreword) Thomas E. Mann, Elephant's Edge: The Republicans as a Ruling Party, Praeger Publishers (Westport, CT), 2005.

(With Thomas E. Mann) The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2006.

(Editor, with John C. Fortier) Second-Term Blues: How George W. Bush Has Governed, American Enterprise Institute: Brookings Institution Press (Washington, DC), 2007.

CONTRIBUTOR

James J. Heaphey and Alan P. Balutis, editors, Legislative Staffing: A Comparative View, Sage Halsted Press (New York, NY), 1976.

Charles Peters and James Fallows, editors, Inside the System, 3rd edition (Ornstein was not included in earlier editions), Praeger (New York, NY), 1976.

Robert L. Peabody and Nelson W. Polsby, editors, New Perspectives on the House of Representatives, 3rd edition (Ornstein was not included in earlier editions), Rand McNally (Chicago, IL), 1977.

Susan Welch and John G. Peters, editors, Legislative Reform and Public Policy, Praeger (New York, NY), 1977.

Larry Dodd and Bruce Oppenheimer, editors, Congress Reconsidered, Praeger (Westport, CT), 1977, 2nd edition, Holt (New York, NY), 1979.

Allan P. Sindler, editor, America in the 1970's, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1977.

Senators: Offices, Ethics, and Pressures, U.S. Government Printing Office (Washington, DC), 1977.

Jeff Fishel, editor, Politics and Parties in an Anti-Party Age, Indiana University Press (Bloomington, IN), 1978.

Global Economic Issues, U.S. Government Printing Office (Washington, DC), 1979.

Walter Berns, editor, After the People Vote: A Guide to the Electoral College, American Enterprise Press (Washington, DC), 1992.

Also contributor to Vital Statistics on Congress, 1993-94, 7th edition, Congressional Quarterly, 1994. Author of "Congress Inside Out" column for Roll Call newspaper. Editor of "The New Congress: People and Process on Capitol Hill," a National Journal, reprint series, 1978-79. Contributor to professional journals, popular magazines, and newspapers, including Current, Fortune, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Monthly. Special editor of Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, January, 1974.

SIDELIGHTS:

Norman J. Ornstein once told CA: "Unlike many academics, I attempt in many of my writings to reach a wider audience—policy makers, journalists, and the interested public. I try to combine my academic training, practical experience in Washington politics and public affairs, and my Washington base to analyze political events, processes, and policies."

The author, coauthor, and editor of numerous books focusing on the U.S. federal government, Ornstein has often been praised by reviewers for his ability to reach both specialists and the public. For example, in his 1994 book Debt and Taxes, written with John H. Makin, Ornstein and his coauthor "provide a readable, informed historical analysis … of U.S. fiscal policy," as noted by Booklist contributor David Rouse. Fortune contributor Doug Bandow wrote: "The surprise? How enjoyable swimming through a 200-year-old sea of red ink turns out to be."

The author has also collaborated with Thomas E. Mann on a number of books, especially as coeditors. In Congress, the Press, and the Public, the coeditors have collected presentations from a conference during which both journalists and academics discussed how the media influences the negative view that the public has of the U.S. Congress. "In an era when it has become fashionable, especially among politicians and professors, to blame the press for excessively negative coverage, cynical assumptions about congressional ethics, and emphasis on rumor and scandal over issues and institutional process, the authors come up with some interesting findings," wrote Ken Bode in Washington Monthly.

Ornstein and Mann assemble essays that look at U.S. healthcare problems circa 1997 in Intensive Care: How Congress Shapes Health Policy. "Mann and Ornstein have assembled eight cohesive essays, providing a fascinating look into the sessions and committee rooms during the congressional deliberations leading to passage and later repeal of the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act and to the failure of President Clinton's health care reform efforts of 1993-94," wrote Julia E. Robinson in Public Administration Review. The author and Mann also edited The Permanent Campaign and Its Future. Writing in Presidential Studies Quarterly, David Menefee-Libey commented that "Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann have gathered a respected group of mainstream political scholars to consider what the permanent campaign has come to mean in American politics and to ask whether the distinction between campaigning and governing may be vanishing entirely."

In The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track, Ornstein and coauthor Thomas E. Mann explore the erosion of effective governing with the U.S. Congress since the late 1980s. They focus on problems such as congressional leaders who are more dedicated to their political party than to the American people and on various congressional procedures that have made Congress ineffective. "Most of the criticism here goes to Republicans—largely because they are in power—but the wealth of detail offered by Mann and Ornstein gives partisanship a good name," wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor. Overall, the book received good reviews from the critics. Brendan Driscoll, writing in Booklist, called The Broken Branch "a plea for a return to dignified deliberation and a brave discussion of … [needed changes in] legislative behaviors." Noting that the authors are "two of political Washington's most astute and prolific observers," Don Wolfensberger went on to write in the Wilson Quarterly: "The Broken Branch is a well-documented explanation of their frustration" with Congress.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

America, June 15, 1985, Robert J. Spitzer, "The Item Veto: A Bad Idea That Lives On," p. 492.

American Legion, March, 1992, "Is Congress Still the People's Forum?," p. 36.

American Political Science Review, March, 1997, Mark Carl Rom, review of Intensive Care: How Congress Shapes Health Policy, p. 193.

Atlantic Monthly, June, 2003, Michelle Cottle, "Norman Ornstein's Doomsday Scenario: What Would Happen If a Bomb Wiped out the Federal Government?," p. 30.

Barron's, November 10, 1986, Thomas G. Donlan, "Upheaval on the Hill? How the Election Results Will Affect Congress," p. 8.

Booklist, February 15, 1994, David Rouse, review of Debt and Taxes, p. 1040; February 15, 1994, review of Vital Statistics on Congress, 1993-94, 7th edition, p. 1111; September 1, 2006, Brendan Driscoll, review of The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track, p. 28.

Book World, August 13, 2006, Robert C. Kaiser, "House of III Repute," p. 7.

Broadcasting & Cable, July 7, 1997, Chris McConnell, "Broadcasters Welcome Minow-less Choices; but Still Oppose Committee to Study Digital Public Interest Duties," p. 19; July 14, 1997, "Ornstein on Obligations," p. 24; January 25, 1999, "TV Wonk," p. 14.

Broward Daily Business Review, December 9, 2005, "The Nine or No One."

Campaigns & Elections, April, 2001, review of The Permanent Campaign and Its Future, p. 20.

CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, April, 1992, A.L. Springer, review of Political Power and Social Change: The United States Faces a United Europe, p. 1297; March, 1994, L. Stwalley, review of Vital Statistics on Congress, 1993-94, p. 1106; June, 1994, A.R. Sanderson, review of Debt and Taxes, p. 1628; July, 1996, M.L. Hopkins, review of Intensive Care, p. 1828.

Congress & the Presidency, spring, 1996, Thomas Weko, review of Intensive Care.

Dun's Business Month, October, 1982, "The Economy and the Election," p. 13.

Foreign Affairs, spring, 1992, William Diebold, review of Political Power and Social Change.

Fortune, April 18, 1994, Doug Bandow, review of Debt and Taxes, p. 180.

Harvard Journal on Legislation, summer, 1996, Mona E. Mitrani, review of Intensive Care.

Investment News, November 20, 2006, "Bush, Congress Seen Likely to Battle," p. 33.

JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, October 23, 1996, William J. Bicknell, review of Intensive Care, p. 1353.

Journal of Policy Analysis & Management, fall, 1995, James L. Chan, review of Debt and Taxes.

Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 2006, review of The Broken Branch, p. 621.

Library Journal, April 1, 1994, Geoffrey T. Mills, review of Debt and Taxes, p. 112.

Media Studies Journal, January, 1996, Jeffrey R. Biggs, review of Congress, the Press, and the Public, p. 153.

Miami Daily Business Review, December 9, 2005, "The Nine or No One."

Mother Jones, February-March, 1990, Marc Cooper and Lawrence C. Soley, "All the Right Sources: A Two-year Study Documents the Bias in Network News Reporting," p. 20.

National Journal, May 18, 1996, Papul Starobin, "Deposing the King" (quotes from author), p. 1124.

National Underwriter Life & Health-Financial Services Edition, April 18, 1988, Steven Brostoff, "Banks Should Be Banks: Kristol," p. 4; June 8, 1998, Steven Brostoff, "Social Security Changes Now Viewed as Politically Inevitable," p. 54.

National Underwriter-Property & Casualty-Employee Benefits Edition, April 18, 1988, Steven Brostoff, "Think Tank Urges Banks to Stay Put," p. 4.

New Republic, October 13, 1986, "A Savvy Lobbyist with a Passion for Cash," p. 24; July 10, 1989, Timothy Noah, "Be Happy," p. 43; December 11, 1989, Jacob Weisberg, "Troubling Questions," p. 51.

Nutraceuticals International, July, 2006, "US CRN Announces Keynote Speakers for Its September Conference in Boston."

Palm Beach Daily Business Review, December 9, 2005, "The Nine or No One."

Policy Studies Journal, spring, 1996, Grace R. Freedman, review of Intensive Care.

Political Science Quarterly, summer, 1996, Stephanie Greco Larson, review of Congress, the Press, and the Public; fall, 1996, Anne Reisinger, review of Intensive Care.

Presidential Studies Quarterly, January, 1994, Charles W. Dunn, review of Renewing Congress: A Second Report, p. 183; June, 2001, David Menefee-Libey, review of The Permanent Campaign and Its Future, p. 383.

PS: Political Science & Politics, October, 2006, "Recognizing Outstanding Contributions to the Profession: The 2006 Frank J. Goodnow Awards," p. 961.

Public Administration Review, May, 1997, Julia E. Robinson, review of Intensive Care, p. 256.

Publishers Weekly, June 5, 2006, review of The Broken Branch, p. 53.

Time, May 2, 1983, Hugh Sidey, "Checking and Balancing," p. 14.

U.S. News & World Report, May 18, 1981, "The Foreign Field: Win, Place and Show," p. 45; January 25, 1982, "An Expert Assesses Reagan's Performance So Far," p. 27; January 28, 1985, "The System of Checks and Balances Is Alive and Well," p. 53; September 11, 2006, Danielle Knight, "An Old Pro on Why Things Are So Bad," p. 56.

Washingtonian, May, 1984, Vera Glaser, "Norman J. Ornstein; He Lives in Five Worlds, from Academia to Television," p. 31; May, 2004, Ken Adelman, "Man of the People," p. 35.

Washington Monthly, December, 1986, Steven Waldman, "The King of Quotes; Why the Press Is Addicted to Norman Ornstein," p. 33; November, 1994, Ken Bode, review of Congress, the Press, and the Public, p. 58; July-August, 2006, Kevin Drum, "Out of Order: How the GOP Broke Congress," p. 50.

White House Studies, spring, 2003, Richard S. Conley, "President Reagan, White House Lobbying, and Key Votes: A Reassessment."

Wilson Quarterly, autumn, 2006, Don Wolfensberger, "A House Divided," review of The Broken Branch, p. 104.

ONLINE

American Enterprise Institute Web site,http://www.aei.org/ (August 5, 2007), biography of author.

Washingtonpost.com,http://www.washingtonpost.com/ (February 13, 2006), Michael Grunwald, Jack Levin, and Norm Ornstein, "Outlook: Crime, Corruption and Congress."