Former U.S. Senator George J. Mitchell ’54 (D-ME) was on campus this week to speak at a meeting of local physicians and hospital administrators. During his visit, the former Senate Majority Leader — who is a co-founder of the Bipartisan Policy Center — sat down with Bowdoin’s Director of News and Media Relations, Doug Cook, to discuss the current state of Congress, what it takes to make real progress in government, and how the lessons of peacemaking in Northern Ireland and diplomacy in the Middle East can help break ideological gridlock in Washington.