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Mark Reed Levin ( lə.ˈvɪn ) is an American conservative radio talk show host. Levin was born on September 21, 1957, of Jewish heritage.
Education
Mark Levin holds a 1977 magna-cum-laude B.A. from Temple University, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa, and a J.D. from Temple University School of Law.
Professional Career
Levin has served as a top adviser to several members of President Ronald Reagan's Cabinet —including as Chief of Staff to then United States Attorney General Edwin Meese. In 2001, the American Conservative Union named Levin the recipient of their Ronald Reagan Award. He has practiced law in the private sector, and serves as President of the Landmark Legal Foundation in Leesburg, Virginia. In addition, his radio show is broadcast from New York's WABC from 6 to 8PM ET every weekday.
Book and Punditry
Levin is author of the bestselling book, Men In Black: How The Supreme Court Is Destroying America (ISBN 0895260506), about the perils of what Levin and others believe is judicial activism. Levin is a strong believer in originalism as the proper theoretical framework for Constitutional interpretation. He is also a strong advocate of the unitary executive theory, and often criticizes liberals in the Congress for what he feels is an attempt to stack the Supreme Court of the United States with judges who aim to "legislate from the bench."
Levin is also a contributing editor for National Review Online, and writes frequently for other publications. In 2006 he began his own blog at National Review Online.
Contributions to Other Radio Shows
For many years he was a frequent contributor of legal opinions to Rush Limbaugh, who referred to him on-air as "F. Lee Levin", a tongue-in-cheek reference to the famous defense attorney F. Lee Bailey. He and Sean Hannity, who both have talk shows originating from the WABC studios, often call-in to each others' radio programs, referring to each other playfully as "Doctor Hannity" or "Doctor Levin". Levin mainly calls Hannity's program to debate or insult a liberal caller, most often calling to deliver a one-line insult or off-color joke only to then quickly hang up.
Radio Show
Levin is known for using the catchphrases "Are you a lib?", "You're annoying!", and "Get off the phone, you big dope!" on the air. He is also known for using two ranges of voice pitch on the air, and switches between them to indicate anger or for effect. For comic relief he occasionally does a show as an alter ego, the effete "Maurice", who is a "lib". He also makes fun of the names of politicians and others whom he disagrees with; a particular target of his toilet humor has been the last name of New York Representative Anthony D. Weiner.
Music
More than most talk show hosts, Levin plays music, beyond just the standard metal-flavored bumpers. Favorites played at length include Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA" as well as the service hymns "The Army Goes Rolling Along", "Anchors Aweigh", "Marines' hymn", "The U.S. Air Force", and the Coast Guard hymn. Mark also frequently plays the song "Walking Around in Women's Underwear" , a parody of "Winter Wonderland" produced by Bob Rivers. The song was first played on the show in December 2004 and was only intended to be played during the holiday season. However, when many people started calling up to request the song, Mark decided to continue playing the song throughout the year.
On-air jargon
Levin often uses derisive nicknames for politicians and institutions with which he disagrees. The following is a sample of those pseudonyms:
- "Hillary Rotten Clinton" - Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY)
- "'Little' Dick Durbin" - Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL)
- "BJ Bill Clinton" - Former President Bill Clinton
- "Fatty-Fat Tim Fat Russert" - Tim Russert
- "The New York Slimes" - The New York Times
Syndication
Since 2006 his show is syndicated by ABC Radio for five other stations besides WABC-AM: WBAP-AM (Arlington, Texas), WMAL-AM (Washington, District of Columbia) and WJR-AM (Detroit, Michigan), KFSO-AM (San Francisco), KABC-AM (Los Angeles).
External links
- And Another Thing . . . on National Review Online
- Mark Levin Fan, unofficial fan site (with show clips and Levin bio info)
- Landmark Legal Foundation
- Dahlia Lithwick's review of Men in Black from Slate.com