MARY MATALIN
Name: Mary Matalin
Birth name: Mary Joe Matalin
Born: 19 August 1953 Calumet City, Illinois, United States
Mary Joe Matalin (born August 19, 1953) is an American political strategist and
consultant. She is known for her work with the Republican Party. She was an
assistant to President George W. Bush and counselor to Vice President Dick
Cheney until 2003. In April 2004, she published the book Letters to My Daughters.
In March 2005, Matalin was chosen to run a new conservative publishing imprint
at Simon & Schuster.
Matalin grew up in Calumet City, Illinois. She attended Thornton Fractional
North High School and attended Western Illinois University. She was homecoming
queen her junior year of high school.
Her first campaign was Illinois Lieutenant Governor Dave O'Neal's bid for the U.S.
Senate in 1980, a race O'Neal lost to Alan Dixon. After O'Neal's loss, Matalin
began her career with the Republican National Committee, where she would remain
for nearly two decades as a key Republican strategist. Leaving briefly to attend
Hofstra University School of Law, Matalin dropped out after just one year, and
in 1984 returned to the RNC. She rose quickly, as an aide to Rich Bond and Chief
of Staff to RNC co-Chairperson Betty Heitman in 1985. A year later Matalin
gained national notoriety when she joined the George H. W. Bush for President
Campaign, working as both Deputy Political Director and Midwest Regional
Political Director in the primaries. After the election, Matalin was appointed
Chief of Staff to then RNC Chairman Lee Atwater. In that capacity, she would in
effect run the RNC for nearly a year, as Atwater -- his health declining due to
an inoperable brain tumor -- spent 170 days in the hospital between his
diagnosis in early March 1990 and eventual death on March 29, 1991
Matalin was a host of CNN's Crossfire political debate show, and in 1993, she
hosted Equal Time, which aired on the CNBC business television channel. Matalin
was also the host of her own talk radio show in the 1990s, "The Mary Matalin
Show," which was carried on the CBS Radio Network.
Matalin, a colleague of Karl Rove, worked for Vice President Dick Cheney in the
White House. She attended meetings of the White House Iraq Group, an internal
White House task force convened in August 2002 (seven months before the 2003
Invasion of Iraq). WHIG was charged with the task of convincing the US public of
the potential threat of Saddam Hussein's alleged violations of international law
in his refusal to cooperate with United Nations weapons inspectors.
Matalin resigned her responsibilities as of December 31, 2002. Although
Matalin left the White House more than six months before the leak that triggered
the Valerie Plame scandal, she is reported to have testified before the grand
jury of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald[citation needed]. (Notes and records
of WHIG meetings were subpoenaed by Fitzgerald in January 2004.)
Matalin also appeared alongside her husband James Carville in HBO's 2003
television show K Street where she and her husband played versions of themselves
as they lobbied real and fictional politicians. The show was directed by Academy
Award winner Steven Soderbergh and featured a cast of fictional and real
characters working in the political sphere.
In April 2006, she was appointed Treasurer of Virginia Republican Senator George
Allen's re-election committee. She worked on the presidential campaign of Fred
Thompson until January 2008, when Thompson dropped out of the race.
Name: Mary Matalin
Birth name: Mary Joe Matalin
Born: 19 August 1953 Calumet City, Illinois, United States
Mary Joe Matalin (born August 19, 1953) is an American political strategist and
consultant. She is known for her work with the Republican Party. She was an
assistant to President George W. Bush and counselor to Vice President Dick
Cheney until 2003. In April 2004, she published the book Letters to My Daughters.
In March 2005, Matalin was chosen to run a new conservative publishing imprint
at Simon & Schuster.
Matalin grew up in Calumet City, Illinois. She attended Thornton Fractional
North High School and attended Western Illinois University. She was homecoming
queen her junior year of high school.
Her first campaign was Illinois Lieutenant Governor Dave O'Neal's bid for the U.S.
Senate in 1980, a race O'Neal lost to Alan Dixon. After O'Neal's loss, Matalin
began her career with the Republican National Committee, where she would remain
for nearly two decades as a key Republican strategist. Leaving briefly to attend
Hofstra University School of Law, Matalin dropped out after just one year, and
in 1984 returned to the RNC. She rose quickly, as an aide to Rich Bond and Chief
of Staff to RNC co-Chairperson Betty Heitman in 1985. A year later Matalin
gained national notoriety when she joined the George H. W. Bush for President
Campaign, working as both Deputy Political Director and Midwest Regional
Political Director in the primaries. After the election, Matalin was appointed
Chief of Staff to then RNC Chairman Lee Atwater. In that capacity, she would in
effect run the RNC for nearly a year, as Atwater -- his health declining due to
an inoperable brain tumor -- spent 170 days in the hospital between his
diagnosis in early March 1990 and eventual death on March 29, 1991
Matalin was a host of CNN's Crossfire political debate show, and in 1993, she
hosted Equal Time, which aired on the CNBC business television channel. Matalin
was also the host of her own talk radio show in the 1990s, "The Mary Matalin
Show," which was carried on the CBS Radio Network.
Matalin, a colleague of Karl Rove, worked for Vice President Dick Cheney in the
White House. She attended meetings of the White House Iraq Group, an internal
White House task force convened in August 2002 (seven months before the 2003
Invasion of Iraq). WHIG was charged with the task of convincing the US public of
the potential threat of Saddam Hussein's alleged violations of international law
in his refusal to cooperate with United Nations weapons inspectors.
Matalin resigned her responsibilities as of December 31, 2002. Although
Matalin left the White House more than six months before the leak that triggered
the Valerie Plame scandal, she is reported to have testified before the grand
jury of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald[citation needed]. (Notes and records
of WHIG meetings were subpoenaed by Fitzgerald in January 2004.)
Matalin also appeared alongside her husband James Carville in HBO's 2003
television show K Street where she and her husband played versions of themselves
as they lobbied real and fictional politicians. The show was directed by Academy
Award winner Steven Soderbergh and featured a cast of fictional and real
characters working in the political sphere.
In April 2006, she was appointed Treasurer of Virginia Republican Senator George
Allen's re-election committee. She worked on the presidential campaign of Fred
Thompson until January 2008, when Thompson dropped out of the race.