2002 Speaker Line-Up

Morton Kondracke

Editor of Roll Call , Best-Selling Author and Political Commentator

A journalist for 35 years, 30 of them in Washington, D.C., Morton Kondracke has covered nearly every phase of American politics and foreign policy, in newspapers and magazines, and on TV and radio.

Currently, Kondracke is the executive editor and columnist for Roll Call, Capitol Hill's feisty independent newspaper. Twice weekly he writes on national politics, White House-Congressional relations, and domestic and foreign policy in "Pennsylvania Avenue," a column syndicated nationally through United Features Syndicate and the Newspaper Enterprise Association. He is a regular commentator for the FOX News Channel, co-host of The Beltway Boys (a weekly political show) and host of National Desk, a PBS documentary series.

Since the completion of his education at both Dartmouth College and Harvard University, Kondracke has compiled vast experience as a panelist, correspondent, commentator and columnist. He has appeared on National Public Radio, This Week with David Brinkley, and was an "original" panelist for 16 years on The McLaughlin Group, the NBC/PBS public affairs show. He has also been executive editor and senior editor for The New Republic, where he wrote the White House Watch column. From 1983-85, he wrote a column for United Features Syndicate which was carried in 25 newspapers, including The Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun and Chicago Sun-Times.

Previously, he served as Washington Bureau Chief for Newsweek magazine (February 1985 - September 1986), where he supervised 35 reporters and personnel. Kondracke was a talk show host on WRC-AM, and NBC affiliate in Washington, D.C., from July 1981 until January 1983, and has been an occasional panelist on Meet the Press, Face the Nation, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer and the Voice of America. His articles have appeared in The New York Times magazine, The Economist, Washingtonian, and The Weekly Standard.

In addition to his terrific success as a commentator and columnist, Kondracke holds the position of chairman of America's Campaign for Medical Breakthroughs. He is a Board member of the Parkinson's Action Network, Freedom House and Funding First; and is a member of The National Advisory Council, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and the Council on Foreign Relations.


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