Episode 88: Fred Barnes

Host Ed Sutkowski talks with Fred Barnes who's been a FOX News political commentator; a guest on Bret Baier/Special Report; a national political reporter and columnist; a book author; and the Co-Founder/Executive Editor of 'The Weekly Standard'.

Fred Barnes is co-founder and executive editor of The Weekly Standard. From 1985 to 1995, he served as senior editor and White House correspondent for The New Republic. He covered the Supreme Court and the White House for the Washington Star before moving on to the Baltimore Sun in 1979. He served as the national political correspondent for the Sun and wrote the "Presswatch" media column for the American Spectator. From 1998 to 2009, he was host, along with Mort Kondracke, of the Beltway Boys on FOX News. Barnes appears regularly on FOX's Special Report with Bret Baier. From 1988 to 1998, he was a regular panelist on The McLaughlin Group. He has also appeared on Fox News Sunday, CBS This Morning, Nightline, Meet the Press, Face the Nation, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. In addition, Barnes hosts Issues in the News on Voice of America. Formerly, he was chief correspondent on the PBS series National Desk and host of What's the Story? on Radio America. Barnes authored the book Rebel in Chief: Inside the Bold and Controversial Presidency of George W. Bush (2006) based on his exclusive interviews with top administration officials -- as well as President Bush. Over the years, he has written for Reader's Digest, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Spectator, Washingtonian, The Public Interest, Policy Review and both the Sunday Telegraph and Sunday Times of London. The Media Guide has given Barnes four stars -- its highest rating -- and called him "a great political reporter-columnist" whose material is "exquisitely timed."