Famous Like Me > Writer > K > Morton Kondracke
Profile of Morton Kondracke
on Famous Like Me |
| |
| Name: |
Morton Kondracke |
|
| |
|
| Also Know As: |
|
| |
|
| Date of Birth: |
28th April 1939 |
| |
|
| Place of Birth: |
Chicago, Illinois, USA |
| |
|
| Profession: |
Writer |
| |
|
From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia
Morton M. Kondracke (born April 28, 1939) is an American political commentator and journalist. He currently serves as executive editor and columnist for the independent Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call. He is also co-host of The Beltway Boys on Fox News Channel and a regular nightly contributor on Special Report with Brit Hume.
Professional career
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Kondracke graduated from Dartmouth College in 1960. He joined the U.S. Army and served in Washington, DC in the Counter-Intelligence Corps while pursuing graduate work at Georgetown University and working part time for the Washington Star. After leaving the Army in 1963, Kondracke joined the staff of the Chicago Sun-Times, moving to the paper's Washington bureau in 1968, eventually working his way up to White House correspondent in 1974.
Kondracke left the Sun-Times in 1977 to become executive editor of The New Republic. He would work there until 1985 when he left to become Washington Bureau Chief for Newsweek magazine. In the meantime, his increased profile led to commentary positions at National Public Radio, This Week with David Brinkley and The Wall Street Journal. In 1982, he joined The McLaughlin Group as one of the original panelists, a position he held for 16 years.
In 1991, Kondracke began serving as executive editor of Roll Call. In October 1998, he began co-hosting his own show, The Beltway Boys, with Fred Barnes on Fox News Channel. He is also a regular nightly contributor on Special Report with Brit Hume on the same network. Kondracke also writes a twice-weekly column in "Roll Call" ["Pennsylvania Avenue"] that is syndicated by Newspaper Enterprise Association, part of United Media.
In 1984, he was a panelist for the second televised debate (on foreign policy) between President Ronald Reagan and Democratic challenger Walter Mondale.
Personal life
In 1967, Kondracke married Millicent Martinez, a part-Mexican, part-Catholic, part-Jewish liberal activist. They had two children, Alexandra and Andrea. Kondracke battled alcoholism during the 1980s, and he credits Millicent for helping him end his addiction by 1987. In 1988, Millicent was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Her long battle with the disease led Kondracke to become an advocate for Parkinson's research and increased government spending on medical research. Millicent Kondracke grew increasingly incapacitated by the disease and died on July 22, 2004.
Kondracke detailed his family's struggle with Parkinson's in a 2001 book called Saving Milly: Love, Politics, and Parkinson's Disease (ISBN 034545197X). The book was the basis of a CBS television movie called Saving Milly, starring Madeleine Stowe and Bruce Greenwood, which aired March 13, 2005.
Trivia
On the McLaughlin Group television show, host John McLaughlin bestowed on Kondracke the nickname "Morton 'When it Rains it Pours' Kondracke," both as a riff on the product slogan for Morton Salt, and as implicit reference to Konracke's propensity for speaking at-length on familiar subjects.
Kondracke was on President Richard Nixon's Enemies List.
This content from
Wikipedia is licensed under the
GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia article Morton Kondracke
|
