Peter Roff

Peter Roff, who had been Senior Political Analyst with United Press International (UPI), owned by Sun Myung Moon, since September 2000, joined the Free Enterprise Fund (FEF) during summer 2005. Roff was cited as FEF vice president and political director as recently as the December 20, 2005, issue of The Hill and as FEF vice president in the December 27, 2005, issue of the Fredericksburg, Virginia, Free Lance-Star. As of January 19, 2006, Roff's FEF profile appears to have been scrubbed from the organization's website. [1][2]

Roff is also listed as Editor of the Daily Enterprise, FEF's web blog. The content of Goff's profile page has been deleted (accessed January 19, 2006).

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GOPAC

Roff is a "political strategist and former Political Director of GOPAC, the controversial political committee once headed by House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Mr. Roff is a frequent commentator on politics and culture for MSNBC and the Fox News Channel." (FEF link inactive)[3]

Goff said in August 2000 that, as "Political Director of Newt Gingrich’s GOPAC, he was responsible for training thousands of political candidates across the country." [4][5]

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. [6][7]

Profiles

According to his Free Enterprise Fund profile (link inactive), "Peter Roff is vice president for the Free Enterprise Fund and prior to FEF Peter was UPI's senior political analyst. Peter Roff has spent most of the last 20 years participating in or covering politics in the United States.

"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

• Roff has written for 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."

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.

• "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.

Comments About Roff

"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.

By Peter Roff

• "Elian the Fatherless Boy," CNS Commentary from the Free Congress Foundation www.cnsnews.com (cubanet.org), May 23, 2000.
• 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.
• "The Peter Principles: The new majority," UPI (Washington Times), November 10, 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.

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'."
• 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."