"Blonde on Blonde"

"Blonde on Blonde" with Deirdre Imus and Alan Colmes

Lanny Davis

Lanny J. Davis is a lawyer, crisis manager, consultant, author, and television commentator providing strategic counsel to clients under scrutiny on crisis management and legal issues by combining legal, media and political strategies. He develops and manages communications programs around litigation and crises to protect brand reputations. He is often called to serve as on camera spokesperson on behalf of an individual or corporation. 

Lanny represents individuals, countries, and companies in high stakes global crises, litigation, government investigations and crisis management. He has conceived, created and led media strategies for clients that have included CEOs, sports celebrities, political leaders, world leaders, and both U.S. and international companies. He has handled the cases of public figures from Martha Stewart to Dan Snyder, companies from Whole Foods to Starbucks, and political figures from President Bill Clinton to Representative Charlie Rangel. 

Lanny is principal in the Washington law firm of Lanny J. Davis & Associates, which specializes in legal crisis management, and Executive Vice President at the public relations firm LEVICK. Although a Democrat, Lanny has friends on both sides of the aisle. During the Clinton administration, Lanny served as special counsel to President Bill Clinton and was a spokesperson for the president and the White House on matters concerning campaign finance investigations and other legal issues. In 2005 President George W. Bush appointed Lanny to serve on the five-member Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, created by the U.S. Congress as part of the 2005 Intelligence Reform Act. In that capacity, he received the highest level security clearances so that he could be fully briefed and “read in” to the various anti-terrorist surveillance and financial tracking programs at the highest classified level. 

For 25 years prior to 1996, before his tenure as special counsel to President Clinton, Lanny was a commercial, antitrust, government contracts and False Claims Act litigator (both in defense as well as plaintiff). He has argued numerous appellate cases in the U.S. courts of appeals. He has experience in securities fraud and SEC investigations as well, and has found that utilizing such an integrated legal/media/lobbying approach can lead to quicker and less expensive settlements or even successfully litigated outcomes. Senior officials of public companies have also hired Lanny and his crisis group to defend themselves successfully against “short and distort” attacks and other market manipulations. 

Lanny has participated in national, state and local politics for almost 30 years. He has served three terms (1980 to 1992) on the Democratic National Committee representing the state of Maryland, and during that period he served on the DNC Executive Committee and as chairman of the Eastern Region Caucus. In Montgomery County, Maryland, he served as chairman of the Washington Suburban Transit Commission.

Lanny has authored several books and lectured throughout the U.S. and Europe on various political issues: “Scandal: How “Gotcha” Politics Is Destroying America,” and “Truth To Tell: Tell It Early, Tell It All, Tell It Yourself: Notes from My White House Education.” His latest book, “Crisis Tales – Five Rules for Handling Scandal in Business, Politics and Life,” was published by Simon & Schuster in 2013. 

Lanny graduated from Yale Law School, where he won the prestigious Thurman Arnold Moot Court prize and served on the Yale Law Journal. A graduate of Yale University, he served as chairman of the Yale Daily News. Lanny is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and Connecticut and before the Supreme Court of the United States and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

He has been a regular television commentator and has been a political and legal analyst for MSNBC, CNN, CNBC and network TV news programs and has published numerous op-ed/ analysis pieces in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and other national publications. He is currently a contributor to Fox News, and has a “Purple Nation” column that appears regularly in The Hill, The Huffington Post, FoxNews.com, The Daily Caller, and Newsmax. He can be followed on Twitter @LannyDavis.

Mike Baker

Mike Baker is a former covert operations officer with the Central Intelligence Agency, president and co-founder of Diligence LLC, a private intelligence and security firm, a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel, and current producer and script adviser to the entertainment industry.

"Bernie & Sid"

Bernard J. McGuirk is the executive producer of the Imus in the Morning radio program. He was born and raised in the South Bronx, New York, where he worked in his younger years as a taxi driver.

Sid Rosenberg is a radio personality and the former morning host of WMEN-640 AM.  Rosenberg is known for his controversial and sarcastic humor as a host on many radio stations including, WAXY "790 The Ticket" in Miami, where he hosted his own morning show.  He originally was paired with O.J. McDuffie, formerly a wide receiver with the Miami Dolphins; McDuffie resigned his position with the station in the summer of 2006.

Rosenberg's self-given jokingly middle name "Arthur" is a reference to former baseball player Dave Kingman. When Hall of Fame sportscaster Bob Murphy gave the lineups for the New York Mets, he would always give Kingman's name as "David Arthur Kingman"; Rosenberg continues this running gag on the Sports Guys by using Arthur as everybody's middle name.

His radio career started in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he hosted the syndicated sports radio program The Drive on Sports Fan Radio Network in the late 1990s, after starting as an Internet broadcast. In 2000, he moved to New York City to co-host WNEW-FM's turbulent morning show, the Sports Guys. A year later, he joined the Imus in the Morning program. He shared the sports broadcasting duties with Warner Wolf before becoming the full-time sports reporter. He engaged in heated half-mock, half-serious disputes with the other members of the Imus cast, leading for example to an actual boxing bout with producer Bernard McGuirk.  Several months after joining the Imus show, he became the co-host of the midday show on Imus' flagship station, WFAN. Here, his strong knowledge of sports and distinctive, high-pitched Brooklyn accent served him well. He would hold both broadcasting positions until 2005. For several years, he also hosted the radio pre-game shows for New York Giants home games.

Hannah Storm

Hannah Storm – a trailblazing and award winning sports and newscaster hosts the weekday edition of ESPN’s SportsCenter, and during the NFL season, hosts the Sunday edition of SportsCenter, leading into ESPN’s NFL coverage. In 2011, she joined the NBA studio team for ESPN. Storm also co-hosted ESPN’s coverage of the NBA Finals, 2009 through 2011 U.S. Open, as well as the Wimbledon Championships. During the 2010 Wimbledon coverage, she called the longest tennis match in history between American John Isner and France’s Nicolas Mahut, 11 hours, 5 minutes spread over 3 days. On Saturdays she hosts “ESPN on ABC”. Also in 2010, Hannah hosted ESPN 3’s “Backstage at the ESPY’s” Special and during the 2011 ESPYs, she served as emcee from the Red Carpet. ESPN has tapped into Storm’s ability to interview high profile personalities including, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Patriot’s owner Robert Kraft, Rex Ryan, Tony Romo, Mike McCarthy the NFL’s Manning family; Michael Phelps, Dara Torres, Tim Tebow, David Beckham, Michael Jordan, and Joe Torre. Storm anchored a Gracie Award winning documentary special, entitled, “HERstory.” She has contributed exclusive reports to “E 60,” “Outside the Lines,” and has co-hosted “The Sports Reporters” on ESPN. In addition, Storm is on the Board of Advisors for espnW, the networks new initiative for women’s programming.

 

 Stepping outside of sports, Hannah hosted the 120th and 121st “Tournament of Roses Parade” for ABC, along with her co-anchor, Josh Elliott. She also co-hosted ESPN’s Veteran’s Day special coverage form West Point in 2009, from Germany in 2010 and from San Diego in 2011.

 

 In 2008, Storm founded BrainStormin’ Productions. Her first project was a critically acclaimed documentary chronicling the rivalry between Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova which she produced for ESPN’s “30 for 30” film series. The movie, “Unmatched” aired in September 2010. “Unmatched” takes nothing away from today’s tennis, while acknowledging that there was never anything quite like Chris and Martina.” New York Times, August 2010.

 

 In 2008, Storm created the Hannah Storm Foundation to raise awareness, fund treatment and provide educational information for children suffering from debilitating and disfiguring vascular birthmarks.

 

 Hannah's passion stems from being born with a port wine stain birthmark underneath her left eye. To date, three children from around the world have received surgery funding through the foundation. Past activities held by the foundation include annual Advocacy Day events for families and patients: 2009 Advocacy Day was held at the Brookings Institute in Washington, D.C. and the 2010 Advocacy Day was held at Beth Israel Hospital in New York City; multiple fundraisers including “Mixing It Up” at Stone Rose Lounge in New York city, a celebrity evening in 2010 held at Morton’s in Stamford, CT, and working with the Waner Children’s Vascular Anomaly Foundation to affect CPT codes used by insurance companies.

 

 The Hannah Storm Foundation also funds the Hannah Storm Journalism Internship at Notre Dame. It was started in 2006 as an opportunity for current Notre Dame undergraduate students to gain practical experience while working in the Alumni Association's Communications and Marketing department.

 

 Storm is the author of two books: "Notre Dame Inspirations," (Doubleday, 2006) and "Go Girl!: Raising Healthy, Confident and Successful Daughters through Sports" (Sourcebooks, 2002; 2011 Re-release). For her work as an author, Literacy Advance of Houston honored her as a Champion of Literacy. Storm has also contributed to a variety of other books and written extensively for several magazines, including Cosmopolitan, Nick Jr., Family Circle, Child and Notre Dame Magazine.

 

 Storm has also appeared in feature films “Like Mike” and “Valentines Day”, in addition to television series “ArliXXrdquo;, “Scrubs” and “As the World Turns”. Hannah is the voice for the Hoover Vacuum Campaign and has done product endorsements for Vizio.

 

Storm comes to ESPN from CBS News after five years (2002 – 2007) as a host of “The Early Show,” covering numerous major news events, including the Iraq war, Hurricane Katrina, Super Bowls XLI and XXXVIII, the 2004 Democratic National Convention, the Presidential campaigns of 2004 and 2008 and the London terror bombings. Storm interviewed major newsmakers, including President George W. Bush, First Lady Laura Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Senators John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, as well as many sports and pop culture icons, including Elton John, Paul McCartney, Tiger Woods, Jamie Foxx, Justin Timberlake, Halle Berry and Jennifer Aniston.

 

 In addition to her duties at “The Early Show,” Storm hosted shows for the award- winning CBS newsmagazine 48 Hours. She also served as co-host of the network’s “CBS Thanksgiving Day Parade” for five years.

 

 Prior to CBS News, Storm worked for 10 years (1992 - 2002) at NBC Sports, where she hosted four Olympic Games: the late-night programs from Barcelona (1992) and Atlanta (1996), and the daytime and weekend programs from Sydney (2000) and Salt Lake City (2002). Storm became the first woman in American television history to act as solo host of a broadcast network's sports series when she hosted NBC's Major League Baseball coverage from 1994 to 2000, including three World Series. Storm acted as part-time host and reporter for the "NBA on NBC" for 5 years, before becoming the show's full- time host from 1997 to 2002. Storm also anchored NBC Sports coverage of Wimbledon, Notre Dame football, NBC SportsDesk, Women's US Open and various college bowl games. Storm also made history as the first play-by play announcer for the WNBA in 1997. 

 

 Storm's national television experience began as the first female host of CNN Sports Tonight from 1989 - 1992. She also hosted Major League Baseball Preview and reported from spring training, the playoffs, and Daytona 500. In addition, Storm hosted the Goodwill Games for TBS in 1990.

 

 A graduate of the University of Notre Dame with degrees in communications and political science, Storm began her career while still in school, working at WNDU-TV, the Notre Dame-owned NBC affiliate in South Bend, Indiana. After graduation, she took a job as a disc jockey at KNCN-FM in Corpus Christi, Texas. Six months later, she landed at Houston’s KSRR-FM as their drive-time sport anchor.

 

 During her four-year tenure in Houston, Storm hosted the Rockets and Astros pre-and post-game shows on KTXH-TV. From 1988 – 1989, she was a sports anchor and reporter for WPQC-TV Charlotte, N.C where she also hosted NASCAR specials.

 

 Storm was the recipient of a 2011 Gracie Award for Outstanding Producer-News/Non-fiction for her work on "Unmatched." In 2005, Storm received the American Women in Radio and Television Gracie Award for Outstanding Anchor for News. In 2000, Storm won her first Gracie Award for her pioneering work as a female in the world of sports broadcasting. In 2007, Storm received The Paley Center for Media’s highest honor when she was named as a member of the “She Made It, Women Creating Television and Radio” Hall-of -Fame. Storm has also received The University of Notre Dame’ s Distinguished Alumni Award, the March of Dimes Sports Legends Award, the Kim Perrot Courage Award, the YWCA Brava Award and the Traditional Home Classic Woman Award.

 

 Storm is the mother of three daughters with her husband, Dan Hicks. She considers her children her greatest accomplishment.