The Costa Report

Alan Lee Keyes is an American conservative political activist, author, former diplomat, and perennial candidate for public office.  He ran for President of the United States in 1996, 2000, and 2008 (founding and serving as the presidential nominee of the America's Independent Party in 2008), and was a Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in 1988, 1992, and 2004.

Daniel H. Pink is an American author who has written five books about business, work and management. He worked as an aide to Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, and from 1995 to 1997 he was chief speechwriter for Vice President Al Gore.

Byron Dorgan is a former United States Senator from North Dakota and is now a senior policy advisor for a Washington, D.C.  law firm.  He also serves as a Senior Fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center, where he focuses on issues related to energy policy and is a co-chair of BPC's Energy Project.

Stephen Jones is an attorney and Republican activist from Enid, Oklahoma. He is best known for serving asTimothy McVeigh's lead defense lawyer during McVeigh's trial on 11 counts regarding his actions in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

For eighteen years Russ Feingold represented Wisconsin in the United States Senate.  Well known for leading the fight for campaign finance reform in the Senate alongside Senator John McCain, Feingold has always championed efforts to limit the influence of special interests.  He was the only senator to vote against the Patriot Act, was the first to propose a timetable to exit Iraq, and has always fought against unfair trade agreements like NAFTA and against financial deregulation.

Dr. Anne Speckhard has interviewed over 400 terrorists - from Lebanon to Morocco - and was responsible for the design of the Defense Department’s “Detainee Rehabilitation Program for Islamic Terrorists.” Don’t miss a sobering look at the “psychology of terror.”

Asa Hutchinson currently runs the NRA’s National School Shield program. Prior to that, he was named Administrator of the DEA in 2001, then Under Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security in 2003. In 1982, President Reagan appointed him as the youngest United States Attorney in the nation. Later in Arkansas, he was elected to three terms in Congress. In 1998, he was appointed by the House of Representatives to try the impeachment case against President Clinton in the United States Senate.

A veteran U.S. diplomat, Nicholas Burns was U.S. Ambassador to NATO and Ambassador to Greece. Professor Burns also worked for five years on the National Security Council in the administrations of Presidents Clinton and George H.W. Bush. 

Political reporter, television pundit and author, Eleanor Clift is currently a contributing editor for Newsweek magazine and her column, “Capitol Letter,” is posted each week on the Newsweek and MSNBC websites.  She is a regular panelist on the nationally syndicated show The McLaughlin Group and a political contributor for the Fox News Channel.

Shannon Watts is the founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense In America, a grassroots effort formed in the wake of the devastating mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Connecticut.

A world-renowned expert in terrorism and kidnappings, Brian Michael Jenkins serves as the Senior Advisor to the President of the RAND Corporation.  He is also the Director of the National Transportation Security Center at the Mineta Transportation Institute. Following the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, he was part of the team that identified terrorist threats and developed new security measures. His latest book is The Long Shadow of 9/11:  America’s Response to Terrorism.

William Shatner gained worldwide fame for his portrayal of Captain James T. Kirk in the science fiction television series, Star Trek.  He wrote a series of books chronicling his experiences on Star Trek and authored a series of science fiction novels called TekWar that were adapted for television.  Shatner also played veteran police officer, T.J. Hooker, hosted the reality based television series, Rescue 911, he starred as Denny Crane in the television dramas The Practice and its spin off Boston Legal, for which he won two Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe.

Governor Whitman served in the cabinet of President George W. Bush as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from 2001 until 2003. She was the 50th Governor of the State of New Jersey, serving as its first woman governor from 1994 until 2001.  She is president of The Whitman Strategy Group, a consulting firm that specializes in helping companies find innovative solutions to environmental challenges.  Governor Whitman wrote the 2005 New York Times best seller, “It’s My Party Too.”

Barry McCaffrey served in the United States Army for 32 years and retired as a four-star General. At retirement he was the most highly decorated serving General, having been awarded three Purple Heart medals for wounds received in his four combat tours – as well as twice awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation’s second highest award for valor. For five years after leaving the military, Barry McCaffrey served as the nation’s Cabinet Officer in charge of U.S. Drug Policy.

A former special assistant to President Obama, Ambassador Dennis Ross is a scholar on the Middle East. He played a key role in shaping U.S. involvement in the Middle East peace process, working as point man in both the George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations. Ambassador Ross is now counselor at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He’s written many books on the peace process, most recently Myths, Illusions, and Peace: Finding a New Direction for America in the Middle East.

LT. General Russel L. Honoré, US Army (Ret), was widely hailed by the media as the "Category 5 General" who led Task Force Katrina in the aftermath of the devastating hurricanes that struck the Gulf Coast in the summer of 2005. General Honoré is currently a Senior Scientist with The Gallup Organization, where he is working on developing questions to determine levels of preparedness, and a CNN Preparedness Contributor. His latest book, Leadership in the New Normal is now available.

Kay Bailey Hutchison has been one of the top five ranking Republicans in the Senate, serving on the Appropriations Committee, Veterans Affairs, Science and Transportation, Defense, and Water and Energy Committees.   She was the first woman elected to represent the state of Texas and she has been named one of the top thirty most powerful women in America.  In January 2013, after finishing her third full term, Kay Bailey Hutchison retired from the U.S. Senate. 

Henry William Brands is one of a handful of presidential historians who were invited to dine with President Obama. He is the Dickson Allen Anderson Centennial Professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin. He writes on American history and politics, with books including Traitor to His Class, Andrew Jackson, The Age of Gold, The First American, and TR. Several of his books have been bestsellers; two, Traitor to His Class and The First American, were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize.

In the aftermath of the 1993 kidnap and murder of his tweleve-year-old daughter Polly, Marc Klaas gave up his lucrative rental car franchise to pursue an aggressive child safety agenda. Through federal and state legislative efforts Marc Klaas promotes prevention programs for at-risk youth, stronger sentencing for violent criminals and governmental accountability and responsibility. Klaas has also been instrumental in the development of child safety measures like the state of the art high tech Amber Alert and most recently, a SmartPhone app missing child alert system.

One of the few reporters who interviewed Osama bin Laden, Peter Bergen is a print and television journalist and author of four books. He is the director of the national security studies program at the New America Foundation in Washington D.C.; a fellow at Fordham University’s Center on National Security and CNN’s national security analyst. His most recent bestseller, Manhunt: The Ten Year Search for bin Laden, from 9/11 to Abbottabad, is being produced by HBO as a theatrical release documentary.

Joe Arpaio is the self-described “Toughest Sheriff in America” and he has overseen law enforcement in Maricopa County, Arizona for 20 years. Outspoken and controversial, he’s a lightning rod over illegal immigration enforcement. For several years, “Sheriff Joe” has lead crime sweeps in the Phoenix area. Critics say they’re aimed at Latinos; Arpaio insists he’s enforcing the law. The Obama Justice Department disagrees and has been engaged in a legal battle with the sheriff. Love him or hate him, Arpaio is never dull.

Paul H. O’Neill was the 72nd Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, serving from 2001-2002.  The uncommonly outspoken business leader was appointed Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, then forced out in short order after challenging President Bush’s tax cuts.   Prior to politics, O’Neill was chairman and CEO of Alcoa from 1987 to 1999 and President of International Paper Company from 1985 to 1987.

Phil Donahue is an American media personality, writer and film producer.  He is best known as the creator and host of The Phil Donahue Show, which ran from 1967 to 1996,  the longest running syndicated talk show in U.S. television history.  More recently he hosted a show called Donahue on MSNBC. In 2007,Mr. Donahue served as executive producer for the feature documentary film, Body of War.  His books include Donahue: My Own Story and The Human Animal. Mr. Donahue was awarded nine Emmy Awards during his broadcasting career, and was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame in 1993.  In May of 2002 ~  TV Guide named “DONAHUE” as one of the Fifty Greatest TV Shows of all time.

General Yeager is one of the most famous and celebrated aviators of all time.  He was the first person to exceed the speed of sound, the first commandant of the USAF Aerospace Research Pilot School which produced astronauts for the NASA and USAF space program and a decorated war hero, recipient of the Purple Heart, the World War II Victory Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  Yeager’s work as a USAF test pilot, and later with the space program, was profiled in the book and subsequent motion picture, The Right Stuff.  General Yeager, at age 89, continues to lead and inspire.  Among other recent accomplishments, he flew supersonic October 14, 2012, 65 years to the minute after he first broke the sound barrier. http://www.chuckyeager.com/

Three-time Emmy winner Dick Cavett hosted “The Dick Cavett Show” late-night on ABC, PBS, USA network and CNBC.   His shows were hailed for their wide variety of guests, it’s frequent controversy, and Cavett’s ability to attract “ungettable” guests. His most recent book, “TALK SHOW” is a collection of his blogs written for his online New York Times column.

Tom Tancredo represented Colorado’s 6th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1999-2009.  Universally recognized by both sides of the issue as the most vocal opponent of illegal immigration in Washington.  Tancredo founded the House Immigration Reform Caucus.  He sought the 2008 Republican nomination for President with the intention of forcing the immigration issue into the debate.

Neil Barofsky served both the Bush and Obama administrations as the watchdog of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). From December 2008 until March 2011, he was the Special Inspector General for TARP, working to ensure against fraud and abuse in the spending of the $700 billion allocated for the bailouts. In his book BAILOUT: An Inside Account of How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street, he presents a scathing indictment of how those funds were mishandled and reveals the extent to which government officials of both parties, across two administrations, served the interests of Wall Street at the expense of the public.

LARRY KING has been dubbed "the most remarkable talk-show host on TV ever" by TV Guide and "master of the mike" by TIME magazine. The Emmy Award-winning King hosted CNN's Larry King Live, the first worldwide phone-in television talk show and the network's highest rated program for 25 years. In December 2010, King temporarily hung up his suspenders but in July 2012, his collaboration with Carlos Slim debuted the on-line Ora.tv network with "Larry King Now", a daily new and different show featuring celebrities and newsmakers from around the world.

John King's career as a writer began when joined the Associated Press in 1985. In 1991, King was named chief political correspondent and headed the AP's political coverage of the 1992 and 1996 elections. Also in 1991, King won the top reporting prize from the Associated Press Managing Editors' Association for his coverage of the Gulf War in Kuwait. In 1997, King joined CNN where he served as the senior White House correspondent from 1999 to 2005. In 2005, King was named CNN's chief national correspondent, a position he still holds. He frequently appears on the nightly news programs The Situation Room and Anderson Cooper 360.

Leonard Pitts, Jr. is a columnist for the Miami Herald and won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, in addition to many other awards. He is also the author of several novels including Freeman, Before I Forget and Becoming Dad: Black Men and the Journey to Fatherhood.

Norman Ornstein is a long-time observer of Congress and politics. He writes a weekly column for Roll Call called "Congress Inside Out" and is an election eve analyst for CBS News. He served as co-director of the AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project and participates in AEI's Election Watch series. His many books include "The Permanent Campaign and It's Future," "The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track," and, most recently, the New York Times bestseller, "It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism."

Patti Solis Doyle is a political organizer and strategist who has been part of several of the most important campaigns of the past 30 years, including Richard Daley's 1990 campaign for mayor of Chicago, Bill Clinton's successful bid for president in 1992, Hillary Clinton's election to the U.S. Senate in 2000 and Clinton's failed campaign for president, and Barack Obama's victory in 2008. Solis Doyle was also the first Hispanic woman to lead a U.S. presidential campaign.

Alan Colmes is an American radio/television host, liberal political commentator for the Fox News Channel, and blogger. He is the host of The Alan Colmes Show, a nationally syndicated talk-radio show distributed by Fox News Radio that also airs throughout the United States on Fox News Talk on Sirius and XM. From 1996 to 2009, Colmes served as the co-host of Hannity & Colmes, a nightly political debate show on Fox News Channel. In addition to broadcasting, Colmes runs the Liberaland blog and contributes to AOL News. He wrote Red, White & Liberal: How Left Is Right and Right Is Wrong.

Founder of the Zogby Poll, John Zogby is the hottest and most accurate pollster and analyst of America's political and cultural landscape. He correctly predicted the cliffhanger result of the 2000 presidential election for George W. Bush, in contrast to most other pollsters who had expected Bush to win easily. He correctly called the 2001 Israeli election for Ariel Sharon, the 2000 Mexican election for Vicente Fox and again in Mexico with the victory of Felipe Calderón in 2006. As author of The New York Times bestseller "The Way We'll Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream," Zogby continues to put his finger on the pulse of America, creating a portrait of the trends that drive our society today, and in the future. Currently, Zogby pens a weekly column for Forbes.com, a weekly report card on President Obama's performance for The Washington Times, and a monthly column for Politics magazine.

Parmy Olson is the author of "We Are Anonymous: Inside the Hacker World of LulzSec, Anonymous, and the Global Cyber Insurgency," the first full account of the 2010 digital hacking assault on the websites of VISA, MasterCard and PayPal in protest for their treatment of Wikileaks. Olson is also the London Bureau Chief for Forbes Magazine and Forbes.com, managing coverage of the financial crisis in Europe, interviewing billionaires Philip Green, Yuri Milner and the controversial Mohammed Al Fayed, and breaking stories such as the Facebook-Spotify partnership in 2011. A dual national with British-American citizenship and Portuguese heritage, her journalistic career and education have largely been based in the U.K., seeing her graduate from London's City University in 2004 and working as a local radio journalist for Britain's oldest commercial radio station, Radio Jackie 107.8FM. She went on to work for BBC Television before joining Forbes' London bureau in late 2005.

Gary Johnson is the Libertarian candidate for President and the former two-term Governor of New Mexico. He has been a consistent advocate for limited, efficient government and personal liberty. An outspoken pro-Constitution Libertarian, Johnson would end the war in Afghanistan now. He opposes the failed multi-billion dollar war on drugs and demands greater transparency at the Federal Reserve. As president, Johnson would cut federal spending by 43 percent, slash debt and make government live within its means while reducing taxes and regulation to foster real job creation and economic opportunity like he did in eight years as governor. The National Review said he was "#1" in job creation as governor. An avid skier and bicyclist, he has reached the highest peaks on four of the seven continents, including Mount Everest.

Richard Belzer is a stand-up comedian, actor, and author. He is currently cast and best known for his role as John Munch on the hit NBC show, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. He has written such books as UFOs, JFK, and Elvis (2000) and the novels I Am Not a Cop! (2009) and I Am Not a Psychic!

Enrico Moretti is Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley where he holds the Michael Peevey and Donald Vial Career Development Chair in Labor Economics. He is the Director of the Infrastructure and Urbanization Program at the International Growth Centre (London School of Economics and Oxford University). He is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research ( Cambridge ), and a Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research ( London ) and at the Institute for the Study of Labor ( Bonn ). His research interests include Labor Economics, Urban Economics and Applied Econometrics. His new book, THE NEW GEOGRAPHY OF JOBS, is now available in bookstores.

Named by The Atlantic as one of the hundred most influential figures in American history, Ralph Nader has helped us drive safer cars, eat healthier food, breathe better air, drink cleaner water, and work in safer environments for more than four decades. Consumer advocate and author of the new book "Getting Steamed to Overcome Corporatism: Build It Together to Win," Ralph Nader continues his citizen action work.

R. James "Jim" Nicholson served as the Secretary of Veterans Affairs under President George W. Bush from February 2005 through September 2007. In that role, Mr. Nicholson was the principal advocate for veterans in the U.S. government, ensuring that they received the care, support, recognition and dignity they deserved for their service to our country. Prior to his tenure at the VA, he served as U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See where he was knighted by Pope John Paul II for his leadership on human rights issues. Nicholson is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. He served eight years on active duty as a paratrooper and Ranger, then 22 years in the Army Reserve, retiring with the rank of colonel. While serving in Vietnam, he earned the Bronze Star, Combat Infantryman Badge, the Meritorious Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Cross of Gallantry and two Air Medals.

E.J. Dionne, Jr. is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a syndicated columnist for the Washington Post, a best-selling author, and University Professor in the Foundations of Democracy and Culture at Georgetown University. A nationally known and respected commentator on politics, Dionne appears weekly on National Public Radio and regularly on MSNBC. He is also a frequent contributor to NBC's Meet the Press. His columns and writings on the Washington Post's blog, Post Partisan, are widely circulated on the web and throughout the blogosphere, and the column is syndicated in over 100 newspapers nationwide. He has also appeared occasionally on News Hour with Jim Lehrer. His work has been published in many outlets, including Commonweal, The Atlantic, The New Republic, The American Prospect, Sojourners, Dissent, The Washington Post Magazine and The New York Times Magazine. He has lectured at over 50 college campuses across the country. He has been named among the 25 most influential Washington journalists by the National Journal and among the capital city's top 50 journalists by the Washingtonian magazine. His forthcoming book Our Divided Political Heart: The Battle for the American Idea in an Age of Discontent was published by Bloomsbury USA and released June 1, 2012.

Craig Newmark is a self-described nerd, pioneer of the Web, speaker, philanthropist, and a strong advocate of the use of technology for the pubic good. In 1995 he founded Craigslist, which has become one of the world's most-visited websites with around 50 billion pages viewed per month. In 2011 he founded Craigconnects, his personal Web-based initiative that supports organizations making a difference in areas including open government, public diplomacy, back-to-basics journalism and fact-checking, consumer protection, and technology for the public good. Newmark currently serves on the board of directors of the Center for Public Integrity, Sunlight Foundation, Consumers Union/Consumer Reports, and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. He also serves as an advisor on the use of technology to more than a dozen other non-profit organizations and government agencies. Newmark blogs regularly on his own craigconnects.org website, the Huffington Post, and SF Gate.

Tom Bevan is the co-founder and Executive Editor of RealClearPolitics. Prior to launching the site in 2000 with Princeton University classmate John McIntyre, Tom worked for nearly a decade in the advertising and communications industries. In addition to overseeing the editorial staff and writing regular features for RealClearPolitics, Tom’s work has appeared in numerous publications and he is featured frequently as a political analyst on Fox News, CNN, CNBC, the BBC.

Ambassador Henry Crumpton is a renowned counter terrorism expert, and is truly revered as a legend in the world of international intelligence and espionage. For a crucial period, he led the CIA's global covert operations against America's terrorist enemies, including al Qaeda. His new bestselling book, The Art of Intelligence, draws from the full arc of Crumpton's espionage and covert action exploits to explain what America's spies do and why their service is more valuable than ever. From his early years in Africa, where he recruited and ran sources, from loathsome criminals to heroic warriors; to his liaison assignment at the FBI, the CIA's Counterterrorism Center, the development of the UAV Predator program, and the Afghanistan war; to his later work running all CIA clandestine operations inside the United States, he employs enthralling storytelling to teach important lessons about national security, but also about duty, honor, and love of country.

Jesse Ventura is an American statesman, actor, author, and former professional wrestler who served as the 38th Governor of Minnesota from 1999 to 2003. Ventura served as a Navy UDT-Seal during the Vietnam War and later embarked on an 11-year professional wrestling career taking up the stage name Jesse "The Body" Ventura. He had a long tenure in the World Wrestling Federation as a performer and color commentator, and was inducted into the company's Hall of Fame in 2004. After leaving wrestling, he began a successful film career, appearing in films such as 1987's hit Predator, starring alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger. He served as Mayor of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota from 1991 to 1995, before running as the Reform Party candidate in the Minnesota gubernatorial election of 1998. After leaving office, Ventura became a visiting fellow at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, and has also hosted a number of TV shows and has written several political books, including his new release DemCRIPS and ReBLOODlicans: No More Gangs in Government.

Karl Eikenberry was the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan from May 2009 until July 2011, where he led the civilian surge directed by President Obama to reverse insurgent momentum and set the conditions for transition to full Afghan sovereignty. Before that, he had a 35 year career in the United States Army, retiring in April 2009 with the rank of Lieutenant General. His military operational posts included commander and staff officer with mechanized, light, airborne, and ranger infantry units in the continental U.S., Hawaii, Korea, Italy, and Afghanistan as the Commander of the American-led Coalition forces from 2005-2007. He has served in various policy and political-military positions, including Deputy Chairman of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Military Committee; Director for Strategic Planning and Policy for U.S. Pacific Command; U.S. Security Coordinator and Chief of the Office of Military Cooperation in Kabul, Afghanistan; Assistant Army and later Defense Attaché at the United States Embassy in Beijing, China. He is currently a Distinguished Lecturer at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University.

Gary Hart is an American politician, lawyer, author, professor and commentator. He served as a Democratic Senator representing Colorado (1975–1987), and ran in the U.S. presidential elections in 1984 and again in 1988, when he was considered a frontrunner for the Democratic nomination. Since retiring from the Senate, he has emerged as a consultant on national security, and continues to speak on a wide range of issues, including the environment and homeland security. In 2001, he earned a doctorate in politics from Oxford. In 2006, Hart accepted an endowed professorship at the University of Colorado at Denver. He also serves as Chairman for Council for a Livable World. He has written or co-authored numerous books and articles, including four novels, two under the pen name John Blackthorn. He is currently also a senior strategic advisor in the Denver office of McKenna Long & Aldridge (MLA), where he advises clients on entering and expanding in foreign markets, drawing on years of international experience in Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East while in public service and as a business advisor.