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CONRAD: There are four things that create weakened leadership. I'd start with finances. We are separate operators. We raise our own money. So that creates a dynamic. Second, the advent of the 30-second ad, which I think has a very real impact on how things work up here. We're having many more votes -- at least that's true in the Senate -- partly because people want to get out there on some narrow issue and turn it into a 30-second ad. We've spent hours and hours on legislation, amendments, that are really designed to create 30-second ads. Third is the Balkanization of Congress. When you've got to refer a bill to nine separate committees on the House side -- the energy bill is going to seven or nine committees -- I mean, how do you ever get through the process? And finally, we are suffering from a lack of presidential leadership as well. The Congress is not the Executive. In our system there is only one person able to get TV network attention, go to the country, describe the condition of our nation, have a plan of action, persuade people of the need for change. That's the President.
Q. Would it help if we didn't have divided government, if the presidency and Congress were controlled by the same party?
CONRAD: Maybe, but I think it depends on the kind of President you have. Today I think we have a leadership failure of substantial proportions.
WEBER: As a Republican, I obviously disagree. Divided government is one of the central problems of our time. I know exactly what goes into the Bush Administration's thinking processes when they decide not to take a strong leadership role on something -- economic growth, say, or welfare. They look at the numbers in Congress and correctly decide that they are unlikely to get a legislative product they can live with. I would like to see them get into the fight anyway. I think it would probably be helpful, both to the country and to my party. But I can't disagree with their decision. The impact of 12 years of both parties blaming each other and of both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue blaming each other is debilitating to the country and to the process, to the institution of the presidency, to the institution of the Congress. Yet I don't think the public is ready to give the entire government to one party. They like divided government. They don't trust either political party. I am frightened by the prospect of four more years of gridlock if we have four more years of a Republican President and a Democratic Congress.
WIRTH: Our system was set up as a reflection of the Founders' deep suspicion of central government. But there have been leaders in modern times and in the past who have been able to mobilize this awkward and very difficult system. Much as I disagreed with Ronald Reagan, he was, in the first three or four years of his term, able to move things. He believed in something and he got it done. A President can set an agenda, can be a rudder. Without such a rudder, each of us in Congress maneuvers for narrow personal or partisan advantage. There's no common cause.
WEBER: Let me make clear that even though I think divided government is a very serious problem, we desperately need an agenda-setting campaign. The Bush people ought to resist the temptation to have just a symbolic or gimmicky campaign -- Willie Horton or something like that.