Distill It Down

Let me see if I get the logic behind this. The problem with this whole thing has been there's too much partisan gridlock in Washington. So what we're going to do is distill it down to the real stars of partisan gridlock, and that's going to get something done.

-- Charlie Pierce (1953-), American writer and author, on the congressional supercommittee, on NPR's Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me quiz show, 6 August 2011