Lugar Concession Speech Tells All About Polarization

May 9 (Bloomberg) -- “We have been studying Washingtonpolitics and Congress for more than 40 years, and never have weseen them this dysfunctional,” wrote Thomas Mann and NormanOrnstein in the Washington Post. “In our past writings, we havecriticized both parties when we believed it was warranted.Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that thecore of the problem lies with the Republican Party.”

In Washington, “Mann and Ornstein” are a brand. Mann worksat the centrist Brookings Institution; Ornstein at theconservative American Enterprise Institute. Over their four-decade partnership, they have established themselves as the twomost respected, committed scholars -- and defenders -- of theU.S. Congress. They never tire of pointing out that the way theFounders designed the federal government, Congress came first,and it was intended to have an “institutional identity,” not apartisan identity. It’s that institutional identity, they nowsay, that is under threat, and more from one party then theother.