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Pelosi; She's what's for dinner
- By Ellen Ratner
- Published 05/18/2009
- National Scene
- Unrated
Ellen Ratner
Ellen Ratner is the White House Correspondent and Bureau Chief for The Talk Radio News Service, covering the White House and providing exclusive reports to talk radio stations from the Congress and government agencies. Ms. Ratner is a news analyst on The Fox News Channel where she has a weekly segment entitled "The Long and Short of It" with Jim Pinkerton. She is heard on over 500 stations across the United States representing individual stations as well as syndicated shows on both commercial and public radio venues. In addition she writes a weekly column "Liberal and Proud" for World Net Daily. She developed the podcasting site, www.newstalkcast.com, which is currently in beta testing. She is also the only talk show host granted two in-person interviews with President Clinton.
Ratner is the political editor and Washington bureau chief for Talkers Magazine, the "bible" of the talk industry. In addition, she has developed College Media News, a broadcast service for college and university radio stations, served by students interning in Washington, DC. In the capacity as Political Editor of Talkers Magazine, she developed the concept of combining radio rows with immediate Internet access via the site, www.radiorow.net. In addition, she has trained many groups in use of radio, television and Internet media. Her latest book, Getting On! Talk Radio, Talk Television, Talk Internet, will be published in November, 2005.
A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Ratner graduated from Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont. She earned a Masters Degree in Education from Harvard University.
From 1973 to 1986, Ratner served as co-director and co-founder of Boundaries Therapy Center, in Acton, MA. Also, from 1974 to 1981, Ratner was the Director of the Psychiatric Day Treatment Program at South Shore Mental Center in Quincy, MA. In 1984, Ratner joined the Addiction Recovery Corporation as a Consultant on Program Development. From 1986 to 1990, Ratner served as Vice-President of Research, Development, and Service at the Addiction Recovery Corporation and as Director of its ARC Research Foundation. She served as Principal Investigator for an outcome research study, determining treatment outcome factors in alcoholism and chemical dependency treatment.
Ratner is the author of The Other Side of the Family: A Book for Recovery from Abuse, Incest and Neglect (Health Communications, Inc.), published in 1990. In February 1997, Ratner published "101 Ways to Get Your Progressive Ideas on Talk Radio," published by National Press Books and Talkers Magazine.
"I certainly won’t defend the memory of a 60-something speaker in a high-pressure job who probably attends thousands of meetings a year. I’m approaching 60 myself and sometimes have difficulty remembering where I put the car keys. But to implicate her in the policy of torture is absurd. Who knows who knew what and when? This is a bottomless game and one with ultimately no answers. In the meantime, only one interest is served by trying to entrap Pelosi, and that is the interest that is really behind stirring this pot that should have been covered with the election of Barack Obama.
Right now the Republicans are facing an enormously popular president embarking on enormously popular policies. And conservatives can’t stand it. They’ve got no traction at the polls, none in Congress, the White House, the media or the courts, so they’ve decided to bang on the nearest table – scandal. Unfortunately for the House speaker, as far as conservatives are concerned, she’s what’s for dinner.
As I won’t argue the wonder of Pelosi’s memory, so I won’t exalt her speaking skills. She’s made a hash of press conferences and has difficulty even keeping the pages of her prepared statement in order. A Cicero or Obama she’s not. The problem for her opponents is that looking foolish at a press conference is not the same thing as guilty – it’s only what it is – looking foolish at a press conference."