American Politics

H. James Towey is the former director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. He is David Kuo's former boss. He responds to Kuo's criticisms of the Bush administration's follow through on the initiatives. Towey is now president of the Benedictine Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Penn.

David Kuo is the former deputy director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. He left in December 2003. He says he was disillusioned with the administration because they failed to actually fund faith-based charities, and they used compassion and religion for political ends. He is the author of the new memoir Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction.

Former presidential Cabinet member James A. Baker III's new memoir offers some insights right of the bat in its title, Work Hard, Study...and Keep Out of Politics!: Adventures and Lessons from an Unexpected Public Life. Baker served as chief of staff and treasury secretary under President Reagan, and was also secretary of state and chief of staff under President George H.W. Bush.

As president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Andy Stern led his union -- along with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and several others -- out of the AFL-CIO to start the Change to Win Federation, the first new labor movement in 50 years.

Journalists Mark Halperin and John Harris have collaborated on a new book, The Way to Win: Taking the White House in 2008. Halperin is the political director of ABC News and creator of "The Note," its online tip sheet. Harris is the national political editor of The Washington Post. They write that the United States is "on the brink of what promises to be one of the most intensely fought and consequential presidential elections in its history."

Former New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreevey. His new memoir, The Confession details his life and events leading up to his August 2004 coming-out speech. McGreevey was governor from January 2002 to November 2004, when he resigned. In addition to coming out as a homosexual, McGreevey appointed alleged Israeli lover Golan Cipel to the position of New Jersey's Homeland Security adviser. Since the publication of The Confession, Cipel has stated that he was not McGreevey's lover, as detailed in McGreevey's book.

Reporters Jeff Whelan and Josh Margolin have been covering Jim McGreevey for The Newark Star-Ledger. The two journalists won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for breaking the McGreevey story.

New York Times columnist Frank Rich's new book is The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina. Rich has been with the Times since 1980, when he was named chief theater critic.

Max Blumenthal is a Puffin Foundation writing fellow at the Nation Institute, based in Washington, D.C. His work has appeared in various publications, and he is a research fellow at Media Matters for America. He has written extensively about the conservative movement, and the Christian right. His recent article in The Nation is "Birth Pangs of a New Christian Zionism."

John Hagee is the founder of the Christian Zionist group, Christians United for Israel. He is the senior pastor of Cornerstone Church an evangelical church in San Antonio, Texas. He is also the author of a number of books; his most recent is Jerusalem Countdown: A Warning to the World.