Hello and welcome to Whistle Stop, a podcast of the presidency. I'm John Dickerson, co-host of CBS this morning.

When House Speaker-Tip O'Neill retired, colonist Mark Shields wrote about a favorite story O'Neill used to tell about himself.

It featured a wealthy couple who had stroked a check carrying a number of zeros for the

honor of joining the veteran politician at lunch. This wasn't malfeasance, mind you, they donated to a

Boston Symphony fundraiser, and O'Neill was the prize. On the appointed day, writes Shields,

Mr. and Mrs. Highbitter, both dressed to the nines, were greeted by the speaker, who thanked them for their generosity to the symphony.

The lunch proceeded apace, but the speaker noticed a chill in the air, inconsistent with the warmth, suggested by the fact that they had paid to be in his company.

Finally, Mr. High Bitter broke loose from whatever admonishment

his wife had clapped on him before the meal. Asked by O'Neill how he had come to purchase the lunch,

the fellow said, to tell you to your face what an S-O-B you are and to tell you to stop being so mean

to the president.

Thirty years later, the relationship at the heart of this amusing little anecdote is held up as a model of bipartisan cooperation.

Is that right? Is it because of the fellow feeling between Tip O'Neill and Ronald Reagan that Social Security checks arrive unmolested in mailboxes?

We commence part two of our investigation into this question.

Just to remind you where we are, the O'Neill-Ragan relationship has been held up as a model to be

emulated in our current partisan times. Specifically, the agreement the two men made

to reform Social Security is the one thing being held up. If they could get together on such a

volatile issue and forge a compromise, then maybe leaders today could use their map as a possible

off-ramp from the partisanship that seems to have everything locked up in Washington.

The conditions that make it seem impossible to find workable solutions to illegal immigration,

unsteady entitlements, climate change, income inequality, and uneven access to health care.

The partisan rhetoric in 1981 sure seemed just as tough as what we hear today. Here's

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