The main thing wrong with the parties -- according to Mr. Peters, the coiner of the term "neo-liberal" -- is that they're, well, partisan: that they put their gain as a group ahead of an honest look at the issues. And the "reforms" of the Seventies have only made things worse.

Mr. Buckley reveals that on Mr. Schorr's previous visit to Firing Line, as a fellow guest with the author of a book on language and politics (#S695), he had asked if he might return solo sometime to talk about his fifty years in journalism. The hour is less volatile than one might expect given his career.