Biography of Eleanor Clift

Eleanor Clift is a contributing editor for Newsweek magazine. She reports on the White House, presidential politics, and a variety of national issues. She is currently assigned to Capitol Hill, where she is covering the war on terrorism and its many aspects, from the ongoing anthrax scare to the various pieces of legislation dealing with the continuing threats to the nation. Her column, “Capitol Letter,” is posted each week on Newsweek.com and MSNBC.com.

Clift is a regular panelist on the nationally syndicated show, “The McLaughlin Group,” and a political analyst for the Fox News Network. Playing herself, she has appeared in several films, including “Independence Day,” “Murder at 1600 Pennsylvania,” and “Dave,” as well as the CBS series, “Murphy Brown.”

Clift and her husband, Tom Brazaitis, Washington columnist for the (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, are co-authors of the book, “Madam President: Shattering the Last Glass Ceiling,” (Scribner 2000), which tracks the rise of women in politics and looks ahead to the day when there will be a woman on the national ticket. “Madam President” will be published in paperback (Routledge Press) in 2002. Publishers Weekly called it “a sharp, insider’s view of the quest to elect a female U.S. president…melding the immediacy of a breaking news story with savvy investigative journalism.” Their earlier book. “War Without Bloodshed: The Art of Politics,” was published in 1996 by Scribner and is available in paperback from Touchstone Books. CNN news analyst Jeff Greenfield said in The New York Times Book Review, “War Without Bloodshed unquestionably works as a road map through the byways of the Washington they don’t teach in civics classes.”

Formerly Newsweek’s White House correspondent, Ms. Clift also served as congressional and political correspondent for six years. She was a key member of the magazine’s 1992 election team and followed Bill Clinton’s campaign from the start. In June 1992, she was named Deputy Washington Bureau chief. According to Brill’s Content, a journalism review, Ms. Clift is one of the most accurate predictors among the pundits on the political talk shows.