Jeffrey Birnbaum

Jeff Birnbaum is an award-winning author, television commentator, and a columnist for the Washington Post since March 2004. Prior to that, he spent seven years as the chief of Fortune magazine's Washington bureau and two years as a senior political correspondent for Fortune's sister publication, Time. Before joining Time in 1995, Birnbaum worked for the Wall Street Journal for 16 years where his last job was as White House correspondent. On television he is a political analyst for Fox News Channel and is a regular panelist on PBS's Washington Week.

Birnbaum pens a column called K Street Confidential and also writes features about the intersection of business and politics. Previously, as Fortune's senior writer in D.C., Birnbaum authored the magazine's "Power 25" survey that assessed which lobbying groups have the most clout in the capital. Washingtonian magazine recently selected him as one of "Washington's 50 best and most influential journalists."

Birnbaum is the author of The Money Men, which examines campaign fund-raising and was published in 2000. His first book, Showdown at Gucci Gulch, was written with Alan Murray in 1987. This classic chronicle of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 won the American Political Science Association's coveted Carey McWilliams Award in 1988. In 1992, Birnbaum's second book, The Lobbyists, was a Washington Post bestseller. Madhouse, Birnbaum's third book, was published in 1996.

Birnbaum is currently a commentator for public radio's "Marketplace," and in 1998, Birnbaum was hired as a Fox News contributor. He is featured regularly on Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume as one of the show's "Fox All Stars" and on several other Fox News programs, including Weekend Live as "Mr. 'Splainer Man." He is also a familiar face on PBS's Washington Week and has appeared on Today, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Nightline, Fox News Sunday, The Charlie Rose Show, NPR's "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered", and CNN's CNNfn, Inside Politics and Crossfire.

He has lectured for trade and professional groups and at major colleges including Harvard, Amherst, Penn, and the University of Texas.

A native of Scranton, Pennsylvania, Birnbaum is married with three children. He graduated as English major from the University of Pennsylvania in 1977.