John P. Seiler
Fort Lauderdale Mayor
John P. “Jack” Seiler was sworn in as Mayor of the City of Fort Lauderdale on March 17, 2009. Prior to being elected Mayor, Seiler served eight years in the Florida House of Representatives. During his tenure as a State Representative, he chaired the Broward Legislative Delegation in 2007-2008 and was Vice Chair of the Delegation in 2006-2007.
Fred Barnes
Speaker
Fred Barnes is co-founder and executive editor of The Weekly Standard. From 1985 to 1995, he served as senior editor and White House correspondent for The New Republic. He covered the Supreme Court and the White House for the Washington Star before moving on to the Baltimore Sun in 1979. He served as the national political correspondent for the Sun and wrote the “Presswatch” media column for the American Spectator.
He is host, along with Mort Kondracke, of the “Beltway Boys” on FOX News. Mr. Barnes appears regularly on FOX’s “Special Report with Brit Hume.” From 1988 to 1998, he was a regular panelist on “The McLaughlin Group.” He has also appeared on “Fox News Sunday,” “CBS This Morning,” “Nightline,” “Meet the Press,” “Face the Nation,” “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer,” and “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.”
In addition, Barnes hosts “Issues in the News” on Voice of America. Formerly, he was chief correspondent on the PBS series “National Desk” and host of “What’s the Story?” on Radio America.
Mr. Barnes authored the book Rebel in Chief: Inside the Bold and Controversial Presidency of George W. Bush in 2006 based on his exclusive interviews with top administration officials – as well as President Bush.
Over the years, he has written for Reader’s Digest, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Spectator, Washingtonian, the Public Interest, Policy Review and both the Sunday Telegraph and Sunday Times of London.
The Media Guide has given Barnes four stars — its highest rating — and called him “a great political reporter-columnist” whose material is “exquisitely timed.”
Mr. Barnes graduated from the University of Virginia and was a Neiman Fellow at Harvard University.
