Mona Charen is a syndicated columnist and political analyst living in the Washington, D.C., area. Mona Charen received her undergraduate degree at Barnard College, Columbia University, with honors. Mona Charen also holds a degree in law from George Washington University. Mona Charen began her career at National Review magazine, where Mona Charen served as editorial assistant. On her first tax return at the age of 22, Mona Charen listed her occupation as "pundit," explaining later, "You have to think big." In 1984, Mona Charen joined the White House staff, serving first as Nancy Reagan's speechwriter and later as associate director of the Office of Public Liaison. In the latter post, Mona Charen lectured widely on the administration's Central America policy. Later in Mona Charen's White House career, Mona Charen worked in the Public Affairs office helping to craft the president's overall communications strategy. In 1986, Mona Charen left the White House to join the presidential quest of then-Congressman Jack Kemp as a speechwriter. Mona Charen launched her syndicated column in 1987, and it has become one of the fastest-growing columns in the industry. It is featured in more than 200 papers, including the Boston Globe, Baltimore Sun, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and The Washington Times. Mona Charen spent six years as a regular commentator on CNN's "Capital Gang" and "Capital Gang Sunday," and has served as a judge of the Pulitzer Prizes. Mona Charen is the author of two best sellers: "Useful Idiots: How Liberals Got it Wrong in the Cold War and Still Blame America First" (2003), and "Do-Gooders: How Liberals Harm Those They Claim to Help -- and the Rest of Us" (2005). Mona Charen is a frequent guest on television and radio public affairs programs and is married with three children. http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen http://media.townhall.com/TownHall/icons/TH-feed-icon-128x128.gif http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen TownHall.com, Where your opinion counts. 128 Copyright (c) 2009 Townhall.com, A Salem Communications Web. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED jim.dearras@townhall.com (Jim De Arras) Fri, 25 Dec 2009 05:01:00 GMT Fri, 25 Dec 2009 05:01:00 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss RSS.NET: http://www.rssdotnet.com/ Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo is in command of 22,000 American combat forces in northern Iraq. Unlike some high-ranking military men who demonstrate exemplary courage in the face of the enemy but collapse like paper... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2009/12/25/national_organization_for_irresponsible_women 2a116c8c-dd5c-4092-a798-e527bd2029cf Fri, 25 Dec 2009 05:01:00 GMT Does anyone remember the TV show "Supermarket Sweep"? Contestants would compete with one another by careening through a supermarket and grabbing as many products as they could toss into a basket. The winner was the... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2009/12/22/maximum_achievable_damage a8e9ab2a-4b2b-4ff7-a2ad-e5268a915b8c Tue, 22 Dec 2009 05:01:00 GMT Mia's story is good holiday fare. That must have been what the Washington Post editors were thinking when they put her smiling face on the front page. Whether they considered the deeper implications is not so clear,... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2009/12/18/giving_thanks_for_life e68cf7ea-4f79-4199-96e8-3ef43d0181fd Fri, 18 Dec 2009 05:01:00 GMT The U.S. Civil Rights Commission (yes, it's still around and yes, it's outlived its usefulness) is about to subtract from national wisdom about college admissions by focusing on exactly the wrong problem. The... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2009/12/15/civil_rights_commission_blunders_again 56e09f6e-6bf7-46a9-a552-e547649d3776 Tue, 15 Dec 2009 05:01:00 GMT The unexpected victory of Republican Jimmy Higdon in the Kentucky state Senate special election -- despite a 2-to-1 Democratic registration advantage -- is another fire bell in the night that national Democrats are... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2009/12/11/democrats_whistling_past_graveyard 5d87b9b4-1e5d-4f38-909f-d6c464744250 Fri, 11 Dec 2009 05:01:00 GMT Though professional hysterics may seek to "hide the decline," there has been a noticeable drop in the number of Americans who believe that global warming is a man-made phenomenon. Pause on that for a moment. Though... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2009/12/08/torquemada_in_east_anglia 40dbb341-ec55-4740-b2b6-134f273ca074 Tue, 08 Dec 2009 05:01:00 GMT Barack Obama is demonstrating bottomless reservoirs of gracelessness. A full 13 months after his election, in the course of justifying the deployment of 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, President Obama could not... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2009/12/04/does_obama_listen_to_himself d65fa195-21e2-4b78-b563-57512d0d69fb Fri, 04 Dec 2009 05:01:00 GMT When tens of thousands of Iranians took to the streets last spring and braved the most brutal repression the regime could inflict, Michael Ledeen was the least surprised man in Washington. In season and out, Ledeen has... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2009/12/01/why_wont_we_face_irans_evil 94e58548-9f43-4fc9-b77c-b047fe87183c Tue, 01 Dec 2009 05:01:00 GMT The president and his party in Congress are attempting to dig this country so deep into debt that we may not be able to climb out. This is a strong and resilient country, but we wouldn't be the first great nation to... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2009/11/24/nurse_ratched_democrats ea2dc297-f7f7-4729-9bdc-de2643c6cfce Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:01:00 GMT Attorney General Eric Holder adopted a tough guy pose when he announced that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others will be tried in federal court for the most heinous terror attack on Americans in history. "After... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2009/11/20/holders_true_motive 83cf8235-367e-4f68-a923-28ef7344afb2 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:01:00 GMT President Obama, who nearly prostrated himself before the king of Saudi Arabia last April, has once again bowed low to a monarch -- this time to the emperor of Japan. What to make of this obsequious body... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2009/11/17/how_low_can_he_go acf70708-5802-46a0-9413-e39a16788d9f Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:01:00 GMT Former President Bill Clinton visited Capitol Hill recently to deliver a pep talk to Senate Democrats. "It's not important to be perfect here. It's important to act, to move, to start the ball rolling," he... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2009/11/13/democrats_may_regret_pass_anything_strategy 5357ecd7-639a-4919-b6da-232a6a61684d Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:01:00 GMT "U.S. Homeland Security officials are working with groups around the United States to head off any possible anti-Muslim backlash following the shootings at Fort Hood in Texas." The Department of Homeland Security is... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2009/11/10/backlash_hogwash 7dba211d-f7e5-4cb0-8bf7-18731d23ba61 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:01:00 GMT President Obama likes to preen himself on his supposed moral superiority to his predecessor. He announced the closing of Guantanamo in his first week on the job (though 10 months on, it remains open) to advertise the... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2009/11/06/are_you_with_us_or_with_them 97d6e171-5974-4cc4-83c3-13adbc4afcd0 Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:01:00 GMT I labeled it "Health Care Overhaul IV" for convenience. In fact, a new 2,000-page behemoth seems to emerge more than once a week from the maw of Congress, so it's becoming impossible to keep track. Until... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2009/11/03/health_care_overhaul_iv_this_time,_its_personal fab6525a-7c2b-44c8-a285-8f712cda53a2 Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:01:00 GMT