We begin tonight with breaking news on the looming fiscal cliff and signs of a potential. A potential fall, little bit, for the past few nights, we've been telling you about the frustrating lack of progress towards a deal to avert the automatic tax hikes and spending cuts that kicked in less than four weeks from now. Poll after poll shows that you, the American people want a compromise, but there weren't many signs that was gonna happen. Nothing was getting done. In a CNN/ORC poll taken a few weeks ago, 67% said Washington officials would behave like spoiled children in the fiscal cliff discussions, only 28% said they'd behave like responsible adults. The are signs that maybe, just maybe, some responsible adult behavior may prevail that a compromise might actually be reached.

 

All this week, we've been focusing on what it is about this Congress and this administration that makes it seems like compromise is a dirty word, certainly the extremes in the party that seems to view it that way.

 

We've been talking, as I mentioned, with past congressional leaders who sat down at the negotiating table facing sharp differences with the other political party in the past and still managing to come out with a deal.

 

Today, I spoke a short while ago with the former senate majority leader, Trent Lott, author of "Herding Cats", a life in politics. Listen to him.

 

Senate Lott, you and senate Michell, who we spoke with yesterday on the program, both wrote Op-Eds, diagnosing dysfunction in Washington right now. And now offering some solutions, you said one solution was for Congress to start holding routine committee hearings, marking up bills, voting on legislation. I think most Americans would agree with that, but be surprised to hear that, I mean, that's their job. I think most of us, you know, would assume, isn't that their job description?

 

Well, they've slowly slipped the way from that, that over the last four years, I guess, particularly the last two years. The senate hasn't passed a budget resolution in several years now. They don't do their appropriation bills before the end of the fiscal year, not even the end of the calendar year. They haven't had a traditional conference between the House and Senate in at least a year.

 

I mean, I don't want to sound hysterical, but that's just sounds crazy to me.

 

It does to me too, and frankly it's one of the simple thing that they can do, that would be a solution to the gridlock and a partisanship we have now. I think if they would go back to the old way of getting things done carefully, systematically, would really help them.

 

I mean, here we are to your point, here we are at the edge of a fiscal cliff. And Congress is still taking a three-day weekends and planning on a holiday break.

 

You know, I did an interview last night, the moderator of an panel I was on with Mark Shields. And he asked me, if you could just recommend one thing other than going back to what we call regular order. What would it be? And my recommendation to the Congress and to the president would be quit campaigning, quit having press conferences sat down at a round table and negotiate a deal. And there is a little bit of revisionist history where we talk about how it was so good in the old days. It was tough then, too. But we got it done, and one of the way we did it, we quit running around talking at each other, and sat down and talked with each other.

 

Your Op-Ed, the headline was "Washington lost it's love of the deal." And it really does seem like that, the deal making, that compromise, even just talking to each other like civilize human beings, doesn't seem like that's happening at all.

 

It's not happening, and you know, Anderson, I was always a conservative Republican, I have very strong believes about certain things we should or shouldn't do. But also thought that I was sent to Washington by the people of my state, not to make a statement but to make a difference and try to get a result. When you're dealing with 100 United States senators, let alone 435 House members. You are not gonna get it all the way you want it. The president is going to have give some, the president is going to have to show leadership, the leaders in the Congress have to step up. Now, it's kind of dangerous, because they, you know, the extremes in both parties there, they are not looking for compromise, they are looking for a win on their point of view. But you have to be prepared to give some, you have to be prepared to push to get some thing done, and if you do that, if you make up your mind, I'm going to get this done.