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- This article is about the conservative author, lawyer, and radio talk show host. For the filmmaker, see Marc Levin.
Mark Reed Levin (b. September 21, 1957) ("Le Vin," ) is a conservative radio talk show host on WABC in New York City, syndicated on both terrestrial radio and satellite radio.
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 Beasley School of Law.
Professional career
Levin has served as 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 is 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 given the weekday 6pm-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 0-89526-050-6), 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 deems an attempt to stack the Supreme Court of the United States with judges who "legislate from the bench."
Levin is also a contributing editor for National Review Online (NRO) and in 2006, started blogging there as well. He also writes frequently for other publications. In addition to his originalist views on the Constitution, Levin has strong conservative beliefs on policy and social issues, often ridiculing President Bush and centrist Republicans in Congress for attempts at moderating their views on social issues under the compassionate conservatism label. He is a strong proponent 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 military force in dealing with nuclear proliferation or other disputes with hostile regimes, such as the Iranian nuclear controversy.
In 2001, the American Conservative Union gave Levin its 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 WABC talk shows, often call in to each other's radio programs, facetiously referring to each other 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. He also covers legal issues in some detail, including all the decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court on issues important to conservatives. Levin 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 with whom he disagrees; a particular target of his toilet humor has been the last name of Rep. Anthony D. Weiner (D-NY).
As of 2006, his show is syndicated by ABC Radio on over 60 stations as well in rebroadcasts on the ABC News and Talk Channel located on XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio.
Music
More than most talk show hosts, Levin plays music beyond 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 Hymn, the Coast Guard Hymn and the Merchant Marine 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:
- "The New York Slimes" - New York Times
- "The Washington Compost" - Washington Post
- "The Cape Cod Orca" - Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA)
- "Nancy 'Stretch' Pelosi" - Speaker-elect of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
- "Hillary Rotten Clinton" - Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY)
References
External links
Other websites
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify the biographical information on this page under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.
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