Government & Politics

Incumbent Republican Senator Arlen Specter for the State of Pennsylvania. He's up for re-election this year, running against Lynn Yeakel. Yeakel has never served in public office, but says she was inspired to run after Specter's questioning of Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings.

Lowry's new non-fiction book, "Crossed Over" was her way to understand the life and death of her son, Peter, who was killed in a hit-and-run accident. The book interweaves Peter's story with that of Karla Faye Tucker, a woman on death row in Texas. Both had happy early childhoods but became troubled teenagers, rebellious, angry and out of control.

TV critic David Bianculli reviews "The Kennedys" a new documentary on PBS about the political family. He says it evokes not just their history, but the many television shows made about them.

Alderman's new book is about mostly conservative pundits -- the likes of George Will, Sam Donaldson, and William Safire -- who appear on TV and write newspaper columns, affecting political discourse in this country. Alterman's new book is called "Sound and Fury: The Washington Punditocracy and the Collapse of American Politics."

Weddington is the lawyer who represented Jane Roe in the Supreme Court. Weddington was in her 20s when she argued the landmark abortion case. She has a new memoir called "A Question of Choice."

Many listeners will know Clennon from his role as Miles Drentell on the ABC TV show "thirtysomething." He received and Emmy nomination for the part. Now he plays a drug dealer in the new Paul Schrader film "Light Sleeper" along with Willem Dafoe and Susan Sarandon. He's also been in the films "Missing," "the Right Stuff," "Sweet Dreams," "The Thing," "The Paper Chase," and many others. Offscreen, he's very active in Central American politics.

Isaacson has just written an extensive book about the life of Secretary of State and Nobel Prize Laureate. The writer takes us from Kissinger's boyhood in Germany, his family's flight to America in 1938, through his army career, his years at Harvard as a student and later a professor, and his rise to political power. Isaacson notes Kissinger's many accomplishments, but also portrays him as secretive, paranoid and duplicitous.

Trish Riley, the executive director of the National Academy for State Health Policy, talks about health care reforms in light of the fact that 35 million Americans are lacking health insurance. National health insurance is also a big campaign issue on both sides of the presidential race. Riley's organization works with states on health care policy, and will talk about what various states are doing, and where the balance should be struck between national and state responsibilities.

Professor of English Joan DelFattore at the University of Delaware wrote the book "What Johnny Shouldn't Read," in which she examines several of the more publicized Federal court cases of the 1980s involving attempts to censor schoolbooks, looking at the resulting impact on publishers and on state education officials. She looks at efforts of both the right and the left to influence curricula.

Film critic John Powers reviews "Bob Roberts," directed by and starring Tim Robbins. Powers says it takes courage to make a political movie today, but Robbins' effort lacks nuance.

Democratic candidate for the Pennsylvania U.S. Senate Seat, Lynn Yeakel. She is running against incumbent Republican Senator Arlen Specter. Yeakel has never served in elected office before, but says she was inspired to run because of Specter's treatment of Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings. Yeakel helped found and has been President of "Women's Way," a coalition of organizations raising money to help women and their families. It's the first and largest regional women's fund in the U.S.

Theatre critic, director, and educator Robert Brustein is the founder and Artistic Director of the American Repertory Company, director of the Harvard Drama Center, and drama critic for the New Republic. He'll talk with Terry about how the arts are in peril because of government action by the left, the middle, and the right.

Writer Susan Trento's new book about the merging of lobbying and public relations in politics is called "The Power House." It takes a look at Robert Keith Gray and his role in this trend.

Senior writer for U.S. News and World Report Steve Roberts, and a regular on PBS's "Washington Weekend Review." President Bush has often blamed Congress for stalling on or gridlocking legislation. Terry talks with Roberts about this assertion, whether or not its true, and if so, why? And what kind of impact does it have on the President's ability to govern?

Scott Lively is the Director of Communications for the Oregon Citizen's Alliance, the group that brought an anti-gay initiative to the ballot, known as Ballot Mesaure 9. It would amend the Oregon constitution to outlaw "promoting, encouraging or facilitating homosexuality." Terry also talks to Peggy Norman, who manages the campaign against the measure, called "No on 9."

Robert Knight, director of the Cultural Studies Project at the Family Research Council (FRC), a Washington-based lobbying group that concerns itself with family values. He says that the two-parent heterosexual family is the foundation of civilization, and that anything else is dysfunctional (that includes homosexuals and one-parent households).

Jamieson is the Dean of the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania. She's been called "the leading academic authority on politics and advertising" by the New York Times. She'll talk about negative campaigning by both parties, and give her take on the recent conventions. Her new book, "Dirty Politics: Deception, Distraction and Democracy," is about how TV ads and speeches shape contemporary campaigns.

Kremlin insider Georgi Arbatov. His new book, "The System," is a memoir of his long political career as Director of the Institute for the USA and Canada, the Soviet Union's most influential foreign policy think-tank. He was not a dissident or an enemy of the system; rather, he worked within it. His book begins with his World War II career, chronicles the repressive Stalin era, the Cold War, the August 1991 coup attempt and its aftermath. He's been an adviser to every Soviet leader from Khruschev to Yeltsin.

Liebman shocked his political associates and friends when he announced in 1990 that he was gay. His new autobiography is "Coming Out Conservative." Liebman joins Fresh Air to talk about his frustration with his party's family values platform, which he says is just a code word for homophobia.

Political consultant Samuel Popkin. He's an advisor to the Clinton campaign and author of "The Reasoning Voter," a book about how voters chose candidates. He'll talk with Marty about the importance of family values on the campaign, as well as the role of the women in the political process.