Peter Roff

Peter Roff, was United Press International's senior political analyst from September 2000 until June 2005. He joined the now-defunct Free Enterprise Fund (FEF) during summer 2005 and remained there until December of that year.

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GOPAC

Roff is also the former Political Director of GOPAC, the political committee once headed by House Speaker Newt Gingrich. In that venue, Mr. Roff was a frequent commentator on politics and culture for MSNBC and the Fox News Channel." [1]

In that postion, Roff said in an August 2000 interview, that "he was responsible for training thousands of political candidates across the country." [2][3]

UPI to FEF

"One of the most visible figures in the conservative community in Washington has just moved to the recently formed Free Enterprise Fund," John Gizzi wrote July 18, 2005, in Human Events. "Peter Roff, until recently a political correspondent for United Press International, will oversee political affairs and information-gathering as vice president of the Free Enterprise Fund. Prior to his stint at UPI, longtime Human Events subscriber Roff was best known as the political director of GOPAC in the days when the candidate-building group was run by Newt Gingrich. Roff's dry wit and encyclopedic knowledge of American politics have been on display at regular 'networking' meetings of the right, notably the Wednesday sessions hosted by Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform."

• Note that in July 1993, Roff was Executive Director of Americans for Tax Reform. [4][5]

Profiles

"Roff is highly regarded for his knowledge of the American political system, gained through his first hand experience in electoral, grassroots and partisan campaigns. Roff understands the U.S. government, elections and the development of public policy as only someone who watched the process from the inside can. His relationships with decision-makers and his access to the people who make things happen in U.S. make his take on the American political scene a must read for those who really want to know what's going on and, more importantly, why.

"Roff holds a bachelor's degree in political science from George Washington University. He is a much in demand commentator who appears frequently on television -- including MSNBC, the Fox News Channel, CNBC's Dennis Miller Show and C-SPAN -- and radio to discuss U.S. politics and elections."

Other Affiliations

• At the September 16-18, 2004, "GOPUSA Issues & Answers Conference" held in Washington, DC, the Friday, September 17th 3:30-4:15 Policy Session IV - Politics and the Media was moderated by G. Gordon Liddy, "Radio Talk Show Host and Former Presidential Advisor." As part of the panel, Roff appeared with Jeff Gannon, at the time White House Correspondent, Talon News and Paul Rodriguez, at the time Managing Editor, Insight Magazine.

• AT least on pieve written by Roff gave appeared in Insight Magazine, "a sister news organization" of UPI. (Scroll down to Roff's March 26, 2004, Insight article.)

• According to the winter 2002 issue of GW Magazine, "Peter Roff, BA ’87, joined United Press International as a national political analyst, after a 15-year career in electoral politics."

• In January 2000, a piece by Roff appeared in "jump page" Free Daily and his bio stated that Roff was "a political strategist and former Political Director of GOPAC. Mr. Roff is a frequent commentator on politics and culture for MSNBC and the Fox News Channel." [6]

Peter Roff Quotes

• "DeLay's preoccupation with his own legal problems, which forced him to step down from the House leadership, also may have given moderates in the House more breathing room, according to Peter Roff of the conservative Free Enterprise Fund, since DeLay was known for maintaining tight control over House Republicans and their votes. ... 'Tom DeLay's current status leaves something of a vacuum, and nature abhors a vacuum,' he said. 'There are some fissures and issues that need to be worked out.'" --Anthony Bertuca, Boston University, Washington Journalism Center, November 17, 2005.

• "The Jeff Gannon business is a tempest in a teapot for the White House." --UPI, February 25, 2005.

• "This is George W. Bush's Washington and this is George W. Bush's Republican Party." --Cited in the May 4, 2003, Boston Globe.

• " ... the Reagan appeal to make America 'the shining city on the hill,' the beacon for all the world to see, is awe inspiring and calls each of us to be and do our best because the whole world is watching. Many in my generation, on both the left and the right, have taken that admonition to heart and it is a central touchstone for their lives." --BrotherWatch Tribute to Ronald Reagan, 1997.

• "Roff, as political director for Newt Gingrich's GOPAC in the late nineties, railed against defenders of President Clinton during the impeachment scandals, accusing them of 'heavy-handed attempts' 'to bludgeon their opponents into submission.'" --DaveM, TPM Cafe, October 19, 2005.

Criticism

Blogger Dana Blankenhorn wrote in October 2004: "Those who don't believe in the idea of a 'journalism profession' are free to load up their ranks with hacks and polemicists, ignore facts and demand lies. There is nothing the so-called 'profession' can do about this. The hacks are called 'professionals' and those with skills or education who lack jobs are defined out of the game.

"We've seen this at Fox, we've seen this at UPI and the Washington Times. Have the 'journalists' who work for these Pravdas paid any price? I sort of had this out with Peter Roff of UPI recently. He was thoroughly dismissive of me, as a journalist and as a human being. So I looked up Roff's work - he's a right-wing hack. But is Roff, because he takes a single paycheck from a single source, Sun Myung Moon, more of a journalist than I am, because I'm a freelance who sometimes can't get work? He believes he is. And, despite the fact that he's a polemicist who will always support one side and has no pretensions of fairness, those who control the 'profession' think he is a professional, and I'm not."

By / With Peter Roff

• "Elian the Fatherless Boy," CNS Commentary from the Free Congress Foundation www.cnsnews.com (cubanet.org), May 23, 2000.
• GOPUSA article list for 2001 includes links to articles by Peter Roff.
• With James Chapin, "Face-off: Bush's Foreign Policy Warriors," UPI (Centre for Research on Globalisation (Montreal)), July 18, 2001.
• GOPUSA article list for 2002 includes links to articles by Peter Roff which were first published by UPI.
• "The Peter Principles: The new majority," UPI (Washington Times), November 10, 2004.
• "Breaking Free," 2pm EST – Today on Breaking Free Kerri Houston from Frontiers of Freedom and Peter Roff, Senior political analyst for UPI, discuss and debate the future of the GOP and conservative causes over the next four years," Free Republic, November 29, 2004.
• "The Peter Principles: House rules," UPI (johnshadegg.house.gov), December 8, 2004.
• "The Peter Principles: House Ethics Wars," GOPUSA, January 6, 2005.
• Winning the Future Reviews: "Renewing America," Newt.org, January 18, 2005.
• "Leaving 'Las Vegas'," The New York Sun, November 23, 2005.
• With Phil Kerpen, "The Supreme Court's business," Star-Telegram, November 28, 2005.
• With Phil Kerpen, "Keep the Good Times Rolling. Policymakers who don’t act to extend the 2003 tax cuts do so at their own peril," National Review Online, December 2, 2005.

External Links

Profiles

• Profile: Peter Roff, Free Enterprise Fund. Note: This link was no longer active when accessed January 19, 2006.
• "FEF's Peter Roff in the Spotlight!" from National Journal Hotline (posted by FEF), December 7, 2005. Favorite Campaign: "The 1984 Reagan-Bush campaign." "What was your first job in Washington?

I was an intern for Nancy Boscor at the National Republican Senatorial Committee."

Articles & Commentary

2001

• "To Kill or Not to Kill McVeigh. No Consensus, Even Among Victims' Relatives ," Zenit News Agency, May 26, 2001: "Peter Roff, in an April 24 article with National Review Online, defended the death penalty for McVeigh as well as the decision to televise the event to victims' relatives. Roff speculated that McVeigh will be 'reduced to whimpering cowardice' at the moment of his execution and that the families of his victims should be able to see this spectacle."
• Terry Krepel, "Tongue-Tied About Ted. The ConWeb didn't exactly rush to Ted Olson's defense during his confirmation battle. We wonder why," ConWebWatch, May 27, 2001: "The junior hatchetman in all this was, interestingly, UPI, demonstrating a growing rightward tilt under its new Moonie ownership. ... (Another example of UPI's new slant is a May 18 commentary by Peter Roff, billed as UPI's national political analyst, slamming the news media for reporting on rumors of an affair involving Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. The article might have had some journalistic credibility had Roff not also described himself as the the former political director of GOPAC, the conservative political group formerly led by Newt Gingrich.)"
• Terry Krepel, "A UPI writer defends himself," ConWebWatch, June 3, 2001.
• "More on That GOPAC Memo / More on That GOPAC Memo," BuzzFlash, December 30, 2001.

2002

• "Peter Roff Responds to Buzzflash's Editorial, but Roff Has a 'Latest' Error of Fact of his Own," Democrats.com (archive), January 3, 2002. (Scroll down to article.)

2003

• Molly Secours, "Angry White Men and the Affirmative Action Debate," ZMag, February 21, 2003: "Peter Roff, UPI columnist and former political director of Newt Gingrich's GOPAC and who claims responsibility for 'training more than 15,000 Republican candidates in four years'."
• Malia Zimmerman, "Meeting at the White House," Hawaii Reporter, March 17, 2003. Scroll down to "During the remaining day-and-a-half of the Frontiers for Freedom meeting, policy leaders met with ... Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform. Other well-known authors and television personalities, including John Fund of the Wall Street Journal, Peter Roff of the United Press International, ...."
• A.B. Stoddard, "Gingrich whips up a storm. His criticisms of State Dept. irritate the GOP," Boston Globe, May 4, 2003. (Citation via the WaybackMachine.)

2004

• Meghan Williams, "Political analyst lectures on American isolationism," The Flat Hat Online, February 6, 2004.
• "Stephen Hayes: Conservatives' favorite authority on 'The Connection'," Media Matters for America, June 30, 2004: "And in a June 23 United Press International (UPI) column, UPI national political analyst Peter Roff, writing in support of the contention that Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda were connected, noted, 'Journalist Stephen Hayes, writing in The Weekly Standard, has documented several more instances of contact and cooperation that should be enough to close the case.'" re Stephen F. Hayes.
• Eric Boehlert, "In the same league as Fox. Don't major outlets like ABC News and CNN know better than to trot out a discredited former Guardsman as a source for stories about Bush's military service?" Salon (ToppleBush.com), September 10, 2004: "Perhaps the most imaginative response came from Republican pundit and operative Peter Roff, who suggested on MSNBC Thursday that perhaps aides of Bill Clinton ransacked Bush's military records in the 1990s, which would account for the gaps in Bush's personnel file."

2005

• "Free Enterprise Fund Attacks on Ronnie Earle," Slingshot.org, October 13, 2005.
• "FEF's Peter Roff in the Spotlight!" Free Enterprise Fund Daily Enterprise, December 7, 2005.
• Doug Schmitz, "Where are the Zell Millers of the Democrat Party?" MichNews.com, December 17, 2005: "'I was born a Democrat and I expect I’ll be a Democrat until the day I leave this earth, but right now this president is the guy I support,' Miller told Insights in the News reporter Peter Roff on March 30, 2004, less than eight months before the 2004 election."
• Elana Schor, "Earle may bite back on Rottweiler ad," The Hill, December 20, 2005: "Peter Roff, the Fund’s vice president and political director, said the Fund would cite its right to free speech, as well as its right to advertise on DeLay’s trial, which it considers a political matter. ... 'We have a protected First Amendment right that has been challenged and upheld by the Supreme Court,' Roff said. 'We’re taking a political position on a political issue.'"