This May 23, 2008 file photo shows Anita Dunn in her Washington office.
(Susan Walsh/AP/File)Photos (1 of 1)
Who is Anita Dunn?
Anita Dunn escalated the Obama administration's feud with Fox News. But aside from her peculiar statement about Mao Zedong, not much is known about her outside the Beltway.
By Dave Cook | Staff writer/ October 22, 2009 edition
Washington
White House Communications Director Anita Dunn set the political world on fire with her comment on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” Oct. 11 that Fox News was “a wing of the Republican Party,” adding “let’s not pretend they’re a news organization like CNN is.”
Fox commentator Glenn Beck mounted a counterattack, going after Ms. Dunn for a statement she made in a speech to a private school in suburban Maryland, quoting Mao Zedong and calling him one of her “favorite political philosophers.”
Mr. Beck’s response: “It’s insanity. This is her hero’s work. She thinks of this man’s work all the time? It would be like me saying to you, ‘You know who my favorite political philosopher is? Adolf Hitler.”
Dunn countered that her line about Mao “was intended as irony,” and that she got the Mao quote from the late Republican strategist Lee Atwater. A certain Fox commentator’s “sense of irony may be missing,” she quipped.
So who is Anita Dunn?
Dunn is a widely experienced Democratic political consultant who since April has been President Obama’s communications director. While Press Secretary Robert Gibbs focuses on providing frequent briefings to the White House press corps, Dunn’s assignment is finding other ways to get the Obama administration’s message out to the public.
So, for example, Dunn plays a key role in setting up on- and off-the-record briefings with the president.
One such session was held Monday with political commentators Eugene Robinson, E.J. Dionne, Ron Brownstein, John Dickerson, Rachel Maddow, Frank Rich, Jerry Seib, Maureen Dowd, Keith Olbermann, Bob Herbert, Gloria Borger, and Gwen Ifill.
Inner circle member
During Obama’s presidential campaign, Dunn was in charge of communications, research, and policy. Dunn was one of four top advisers – along with Mr. Gibbs, senior adviser David Axelrod, and campaign manager David Plouffe – interviewed by “60 Minutes” after Obama’s victory speech on election night.
She began her political career as a low-level aide in the Carter administration. Dunn worked on John Glenn’s presidential campaign and then was communications and political director for Sen. Bill Bradley, ending up as his chief of staff. In 1993 she joined the Democratic consulting firm Squier Knapp Dunn. Her consulting clients have included House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle.
Wanting out
Dunn is a rarity in the political world – someone who did not want to work in the White House and who is eager to escape from the center of power. She reportedly was Obama’s first choice to be communications director but turned him down so she could spend more time with her young son and her husband, Bob Bauer, the president’s personal attorney.
After the president’s original choice, Ellen Moran, left to become chief of staff to the Commerce secretary, Dunn agreed to take the job on an interim basis and is very open about wanting to be done by year’s end.
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Comments
2. TotalCommie | 10.22.09
This woman is a total faux-intellectual Communist like so many other pseudo-intellectuals in America today. Yes, Communism really is bad. The body count of socialism and communist states over the last century speak for themselves. Not to mention the freedoms trampled and lives destroyed by these totalitarian systems.
3. Jon Hall | 10.23.09
For the benefit of those who have decided that Ms. Dunn is a Maoist, the definition of ‘irony’ from Dictionary.com:
IRONY – The use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning: the irony of her reply, “How nice!” when I said I had to work all weekend.
Also, ‘Socialism’ and ‘Communism’ are very different ‘isms’. The Soviet Union was communist. Sweden is a social democracy. There is a VERY big difference between these countries and these terms.
At least some of you Glenn Beck fans are reading information from a REAL news source.
4. Commie Blaster | 10.23.09
Check our “Communists in Government” Reference Site
Facts organized all in one location. Obama, New Party, Ayers, Dunn, Jennings, Jones, Sunstein, Jarrett, Lloyd, Wright, School Indoctrinations, Soros, Cop-Killers, Cuban Spy Rings, Commie Media, Misinformation, Congress Investigation, plus details on Socialist/Communist Members of Congress like Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank and over 80 others. Listen to Soviet Spy defector explain how communist takeovers are performed and Reagan’s guidance on dealing with Communists. Learn what a Socialist, Communist, Progressive is. Examine ACORN, SEIU’s and Union Communist leaders. See FBI files and testimonies. Catch up on Takeover News and study a Communist Takeover Plan from the 1960’s, along with how to resist. Videos, links, pdfs.
Commies can run, but they can’t hide!: http://www.commieblaster.com
5. B | 10.23.09
It’s like the Red Scare all over again!
You people should really learn the definition of words like ’socialist’ and ‘progressive’ before you use them. You all pretend to be experts on ‘Marxism’ but I doubt you actually have read anything Marx wrote.
Yeah, Communism was bad, no argument there. But it wasn’t the only system of gov’t inspired by Marx. Social Democracy for instance is functioning quite well in Europe.
And when you talk about trampling freedom, do you know how many democratically elected governments the US has orchestrated coups against? Greece, Guatemala, Iran, Chile, the list is really long. After Italy, we actually put members of the Fascist party back in power after WWII
When will you learn that the world isn’t a simple good vs. evil strugle, but a million shades of gray?
6. Harvey Katz | 10.23.09
Some of you scare me, with your “socialism is OK” thinking.
My friends, if you want to go live in europe, then got out of here already. I tried living there and it was too expensive for me. Everything has a huge vat tax, even food, in addition to high income taxes and sales tax. Just about every aspect of daily life is regulated, and getting more so. I have quite a few german friends who have left and gone to live in Brazil, the far east and *gasp* even the US and Canada to escape the high cost of living in europe. And you guys want to drag us into that mess, and consider that a good role model? I’m sure your co-workers at starbucks will agree, but as a small business owner I have to say: “Thanks but no thanks”
Das Spiegal even did a great story on the mega regulation of life in europe. something I assure you will not go well, no matter how much you on the left seem to slobber over becoming the next province in the greater EU.
Read for yourself: http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,519165,00.html
The majority of people I know and work with DO NOT want european style socialism here in this country, and you will ignite a violent backlash if your persist in trying to ram it down our throats. We’re not as stupid as you seem to think.
btw, I listened to Dunn’s address, and sorry, I didn’t see any signs of irony in anything she said, and I attended Brown, worked in theatre and love british humor. That woman seemed totally sincere in her admiration of Chairman Mao, which I found deeply repulsive.
If you are like her, I suggest you rethink which country you should be living in.
7. Paul | 10.23.09
“Social Democracy for instance is functioning quite well in Europe.”
That is debatable. They don’t seem to be handling some world tensions too well. Remind me who is doing most of the anti-terrorist stuff… even though terrorists are very active in places like Spain and England, too?
Plus, I don’t know anybody that argues that socialism doesn’t work for a while. The question is … how long will it work? And how good does it actually do? For example, I’ve heard mostly bad things about Canada’s socialistic health care. Unless you’re not sick, in which case it’s pretty good.
8. Richard | 10.24.09
What in the world are these American leftists THINKING saying socialism/communism is ok? Why does the US pulverize those countries in nearly every measurement about standard of living? Why would you CHOOSE to live an inferior, less free, life and pay more for it unless you are just incredibly ignorant?
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1. NoName | 10.22.09
Anita Dunn support communist, socialism, Marxist, and dictatorship. This administration picks the strange people. Who in **** praise Mao Zedong, this person is killer not hero.