By host Tom Ashbrook:

It has been a wild week on Capitol Hill — the Patriot Act, big budget cuts, huge military spending measures, and a hard run at drilling for oil in Alaska.

With the holiday recess bearing down, with news of secret White House spying bearing down, with huge deficits and giant issues of principle and the Constitution on the table, Congress has been on fire.

The once rock-solid Republican majority is fraying, as party dissidents peel off in opposition. Democrats, now with some GOP company, are casting every issue in the direst terms. The political weather on Capitol Hill, and maybe in the nation, is in turmoil.

Hear about high drama in Congress, and the changing political chemistry on Capitol Hill.

Guests:

Gail Chaddock, Capital Hill reporter for The Christian Science Monitor

John Harwood, National Political Editor for The Wall Street Journal

Charles Babington, covers Congress for The Washington Post

Juliette Eilperin, environmental correspondent for The Washington Post

Norm Orenstein, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research