Eleanor Clift
Eleanor Clift is an American news editor,
columnist,
political commentator,
pundit, reporter and
author.
She is currently a contributing editor for
Newsweek magazine. Her column, "Capitol Letter" is posted each week on Newsweek.com and
MSNBC. She is a regular political panelist on the nationally syndicated show
The McLaughlin Group, which she has compared to "a televised food fight" (see [
1]).She is also a political contributor for the
Fox News Network.
She began her broadcast career on
The Diane Rehm Show on
WAMU-FM,
Washington DC, as a week in review panelist. She became well known to listeners for her good natured acceptance of ribbing from other panelists and callers to the program.
Her views are generally regarded as being politically
liberal. During the
Clinton Administration, she was kiddingly referred to as Eleanor "Rodham" Clift or Eleanor "Rodham Clifton," because of her fierce defense of
Hillary Rodham Clinton and
Bill Clinton. Clift has made some memorable comments on The McLaughlin Group:
"The GAO will finally issue its report on the White House Clinton and Bush administrations. (Laughter.) Well, it should have been the Gore administration."
February 23 2002 (
http://www.mclaughlin.com/library/transcript.asp?id=271).:"But I think what we're coming to grips with is the fact that we actually have a mercenary Army, and it doesn't have a nice ring to it. We call it 'volunteers', but we're basically paying people to serve their country. And if you're going to pay people and have a mercenary Army, you're going to have to pay the market rate. And so the bounties are going up - more money for tuition, higher enlistment bonuses - and I think it's appropriate."
August 27,
2005 (
http://www.mclaughlin.com/library/transcript.asp?id=481).
She married
Tom Brazaitis, Washington columnist for the
Cleveland Plain Dealer in September 1989. They remained together until his death of
kidney cancer on
March 30,
2005 (see
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7357718/site/newsweek/,
http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlDC/in_memoriam/tom_brazaitis_1940_2005_20021.asp).
She has also had bit parts in a few movies.
There are generally no references to undergraduate and graduate degrees in any of her official biographies, so her educational background is not widely known. Nor is there much public information available about her early life.
A mostly unknown but interesting tidbit: Clift's first marriage was to William Brooks Clift, brother of the influential actor
Montgomery Clift. They had three children together: Edward Montgomery Clift, Woodbury Blair Clift, and Robert Anderson Clift.
*
War Without Bloodshed: The Art of Politics (Simon & Schuster, June, 1996). Hardcover ISBN 0684800845
*
Madam President: Shattering the Last Glass Ceiling (Simon & Schuster, August, 2000). Hardcover ISBN 0684856190
*
Madam President: Women Blazing the Leadership Trail (Revised Edition) (Routledge, March, 2003). Paperback ISBN 041593432X
*
Founding Sisters and the Nineteenth Amendment (Turning Points in History) (John Wiley & Sons Inc, October, 2003). Paperback ISBN 0471426121
*
Election 2004: How Bush Won and What You Can Expect in the Future (Perseus Books Group, January, 2005). Paperback ISBN 1586482939
*
* [
2] Personal Web Site
* [
3] Check Her Schedule
* [
4] Madam President
* [
5] Capitol Letter column on MSNBC
*
FOX News [
6] Biography
* National Debate [
7] Profile
* [
8] Keynote speaker profile
* [
9] Biography for her
October 1,
2003 lecture at
Iowa State University.
