McMenamin in the National Journal
Published By: National Journal
May 31, 2008
Eileen McMenamin is the new communications director for the Bipartisan Policy Center, a think tank and advocacy organization that pursues nonpartisan policies. She left her previous post as communications director in the office of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in November. "I really sort of used the time to travel and take a little bit of a break," McMenamin says, but she didn't exactly rest. She visited Vietnam; Singapore; Dresden and Berlin in Germany; and Paris.
McMenamin, 38, liked the notion of working for an employer preaching less partisanship. "I think that both Senator McCain and Senator [Barack] Obama have inclinations to reach across party lines to achieve results," she says. In order to tackle big problems like health care, McMenamin adds, "I think we need some common-sense solutions." The Bipartisan Policy Center was founded by four former Senate majority leaders: Tom Daschle, D-S.D.; Bob Dole, R-Kan.; Howard Baker, R-Tenn.; and George Mitchell, D-Maine.
McMenamin is a native of Annapolis, Md., and was a journalism major at American University. "I knew from a very early age that I wanted to be a journalist, and specifically a journalist covering politics," she says. McMenamin has been a political producer for ABC News and CNN, and has worked on three presidential campaigns: She covered Steve Forbes in 1996 and Dick Cheney in 2000, and rode CNN's "election express" bus in 2004. Referring to election coverage, she opines, "For any young, aspiring journalist, I think that is probably the best gig you can get." McMenamin planned to make journalism her career until McCain's Senate office offered her the communications director's job.
McMenamin is married to Ronald Brownstein, the political director for Atlantic Media, which owns NationalJournal. She says the potential conflict of interest in working for presumptive Republican nominee McCain while her husband covers the presidential race was a factor in her decision to leave the senator's office.
