Sirotablog

David Sirota is a political journalist, nationally syndicated weekly newspaper columnist and bestselling author living in Denver. He is widely known for his reporting on political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America’s political parties. The New York Times has called him a “populist rabble-rouser” with a “take-no-prisoners mind-set,” while the Philadelphia Daily News labeled him “a progressive powerhouse.” His weekly column, which was launched by Creators Syndicate in the Fall of 2007, now appears in newspapers with a combined daily circulation of more than 1.6 million readers. Newspapers running Sirota’s column include, among others, The Denver Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Seattle Times, The Idaho Statesman, The Everett Herald, and the Idaho Falls Post Register.

Sirota’s writing has won praise from across the political spectrum. The liberal American Prospect said Sirota is “the kind of pundit you’d like to have on your side in a knife fight and wouldn’t want to cross in a dark alley.” Syndicated columnist Molly Ivins said, “Sirota is a new-generation populist who instinctively understands that the only real questions are ‘Who’s getting screwed?’ and ‘Who’s doing the screwing?’” Even Barron’s, the right-leaning business weekly, said, “Sirota may someday emerge as the left-wing’s answer to right-wing heavy-weights Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter…he has the rabble-rouser’s prerequisite sharp tongue, as well as a quick eye for his opponent’s tender spots.”

Sirota’s first book, Hostile Takeover: How Big Money & Corruption Conquered Our Government – And How We Take It Back, was released by Crown Publishers in 2006 and quickly became a New York Times best seller. Sirota is now working on his second book for Crown, entitled “The Uprising.” The book is a tour of the populist political movement growing in response to severe economic pressure on America’s middle class. The book is due out in the spring of 2008.

Sirota is also a senior editor at In These Times magazine; contributes regularly to The Nation, the American Prospect and the Huffington Post; is the full-time blogger at www.credoaction.com; and publishes a newsletter at www.davidsirota.com that is e-mailed to thousands of subscribers each day. He serves as a co-chair of the Progressive States Network, a nonpartisan 501(c)3 organization that provides legislative analysis to state lawmakers. He is also a senior fellow at the Campaign for America’s Future, a non-profit research and advocacy organization.

Over his career, Sirota’s work has been published in, among others, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Denver Post, The Baltimore Sun, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Hartford Courant, The Chicago Sun-Times, The Charlotte Observer, The Oregonian and Knight Ridder Newspapers. He has been a guest on, among others, CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight, Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann, PBS’s Now with David Brancaccio, and National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation. Sirota was also a twice-weekly guest on The Al Franken Show for the show’s entire run.

During his previous career in electoral politics, Sirota served as a senior campaign strategist to Gov. Brian Schweitzer, Montana’s first Democratic governor in 16 years; a campaign adviser Connecticut’s antiwar icon Ned Lamont, who defeated Sen. Joe Lieberman in the 2006 Democratic primary; the chief spokesman for Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee; the press secretary for Vermont Congressman Bernard Sanders, the longest-serving independent in congressional history; and a contributor to the California Democratic Party’s website. In 2003, Sirota became one of the first employees of the Center for American Progress, where the National Review called his work “the most aggressive, most energetic opposition research in politics.”

Sirota received a degree in journalism and political science from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. After graduating in 1998, he lived for five years in Washington, D.C., and then for two and a half years in Helena, Mont., before moving to Denver in 2007 with his wife, Emily, and his dog, Monty.