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Mark Levin

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Mark Levin

Mark Reed Levin (b. September 21, 1957) ("Le Vin," lə.ˈvɪn ) is a Jewish-American conservative radio talk show host on WABC in New York City.

Education

Mark Levin holds a B.A. magna cum laude (1977) from Temple University, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and a J.D. from Temple University School of Law.

Professional career

Levin has served as an adviser to several members of President Ronald Reagan's Cabinet, including as Chief of Staff to the then Attorney General Edwin Meese. He has practiced law in the private sector, and serves as President of the Landmark Legal Foundation in Leesburg, Virginia. His radio career began in 2002 as a Sunday evening host on WABC. In the fall of 2003, he was promoted to the weekday 6 to 8PM ET timeslot, where he remains today.

Book and punditry

Levin is the author of the bestselling book, Men In Black: How The Supreme Court Is Destroying America (ISBN 0895260506), which warns of the perils of judicial activism. Levin is a strong believer in originalist 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 (NRO) and in 2006 he started blogging there as well. He also writes frequently for other publications. In addition to his Originalist view s on legal matters, Levin has strong Conservative beliefs on policy and social issues, often ridiculing President Bush and other Centrist Republicans for attempts at moderating views on social issues under the "Compassionate Conservatism" label. He is also a strong proponent and supporter of a Neoconservative approach to foreign affairs. Levin was among the many neoconservative pundits strongly criticized in July 2006 for their vocal support of the immediate use of millitary force in dealing with the Iranian nuclear controversey.

In 2001, the American Conservative Union named Levin the recipient of their Ronald Reagan Award.

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 other's radio programs, referring to each other playfully as "Doctor Hannity" or "Doctor Levin." Hannity has also nicknamed Levin "The Great One."


Radio show

Levin's radio show is a mix of political and social commentary from a conservative point of view. Unlike other right-wing talk radio hosts, he also frequently covers legal and judicial issues in great detail, leveraging his experiences in the Reagan Justice Department and his subsequent legal career. He follows the traditional talk radio model of taking listener phone calls throughout the show and takes particular delight in encouraging liberals to call in and debate him. Many liberals do call, though Levin is known to routinely cut them off and not allow their point of view to be heard. He is known for using the catchphrases "Are you a lib, sir?", "You're annoying!", and "Get off the phone, you big dope!" on the air. 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, media outlets and others whom he disagrees with; a particular target of his toilet humor has been the last name of Rep. Anthony D. Weiner (D-NY).

Since 2006 his show is syndicated by ABC Radio on over 40 stations, including:

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," Ray Charles' "America the Beautiful," the theme from the motion picture "Patton," as well as the service hymns "The Army Goes Rolling Along," "Anchors Aweigh," "Marines' hymn," "The U.S. Air Force," the Coast Guard hymn, and the Merchant Marines hymn.

On-air jargon

Levin often uses derisive nicknames for politicians and institutions with which he disagrees. The following is a sample of those pseudonyms:


References or notes

  1. "Greenwald, Glenn, "The crazed face of neo-conservatism", Blog entry, July 30, 2006". Retrieved 2006-08-11.

External links

Official websites

Other websites

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