Kathleen Parker

Kathleen Parker (b. 1952) is an American syndicated columnist. Her columns are syndicated nationally by The Washington Post Writers Group. Parker is a consulting faculty member at the Buckley School of Public Speaking, and is a regular guest on television shows like The O'Reilly Factor and The Chris Matthews Show. Parker describes herself politically as "slightly to the right of center"

Parker is the author of Save the Males: Why Men Matter, Why Women Should Care (New York: Random House, 2008). A columnist since 1987, she has worked for five newspapers, from Florida to California, and is the 1993 winner of the H.L. Mencken writing award presented by the Baltimore Sun. She has written for several magazines, including The Weekly Standard, Time, Town & Country, Cosmopolitan and Fortune Small Business. She also serves on the Board of Contributors for USA Today's Forum Page, part of the newspaper’s Opinion section. She is also a contributor to the online magazine, The Daily Beast. The Week magazine named her one of the nation's Top Five columnists in 2004 and 2005. In October 2010, Parker became co-host of Parker Spitzer along with Elliott Spitzer.

Parker grew up in Winter Haven, Florida, graduated from Winter Haven High School in 1969, and attended Converse College before transferring to Florida State University where she majored in Spanish Literature. She also holds a Master's degree in the subject from Florida State.

She is married to an attorney, has three sons, and currently resides in Camden, South Carolina.

Parker made news during the 2008 U.S. presidential election when she called on the Republican vice presidential nominee, Governor Sarah Palin, to step down from the party ticket, saying that a series of media interviews showed that Palin was "clearly out of her league." Parker received over 11,000 responses, mostly from conservatives criticizing her.

On Larry King Live she said of President Barack Obama: "I'm a big fan of Barack Obama as he came into office, and was not one of those Republicans who wanted him to do badly. I didn't want him to fail. Parker does not believe that President Bill Clinton should have been impeached; at the same time, she believes Anita Hill's allegations against Clarence Thomas. Recently she wrote that the best explanation for Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor rally is that he is a former alcoholic and that in organizing the event he was displaying the "grandiosity of the addict." In one of her columns, Parker called Tea Party protesters teabaggers. She referred to evangelical Christians in another column as "gorillas," "low-brows," and "oogedy-boogedy."

In April, Kathleen Parker won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary with a selection of political opinion columns. On the MSNBC show Morning Joe she said that "it's only because I'm a conservative basher that I'm now recognized." 

As of fall 2010, along with former New York governor Eliot Spitzer, Parker hosts Parker Spitzer on CNN.

On February 25, 2011 CNN announced that Kathleen Parker was leaving her show Parker/Spitzer to focus more on her writing.

(source:wikipedia)