''Capital Gang'' was an American weekly political talk show on CNN which aired on Saturday evenings at 7 p.m. ET. The show debuted in the fall of 1988 and ran until CNN cancelled it in 2005. The original panel was

Pat Buchanan Patrick Joseph Buchanan (; born November 2, 1938) is an American paleoconservative political commentator, columnist, politician, and broadcaster. Buchanan was an assistant and special consultant to U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, ...

Robert Novak Robert David Sanders Novak (February 26, 1931 – August 18, 2009) was an American syndicated columnist, journalist, television personality, author, and conservative political commentator. After working for two newspapers before serving in the ...

, Al Hunt, and Mark Shields. Mona Charen and Margaret Warner joined the panel in 1992, when Buchanan left the show to run for president in 1992. In 1993, Warner left the program to join PBS and was replaced by Margaret Carlson, and

Kate O'Beirne Kate Walsh O'Beirne (September 23, 1949 – April 23, 2017) was the President of National Review Institute. She was the Washington editor of ''National Review''. Her column, "Bread and Circuses," covered Congress, politics, and U.S. domesti ...

replaced Charen when she moved to ''Capital Gang Sunday'' in 1995. Typically four of the commentators were featured along with a prominent public official from either party. Buchanan, O'Beirne, Charen and Novak were the

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

panelists, while Shields, Hunt, Warner and Carlson were the liberal commentators. ''Capital Gang Sunday'' was hosted by

James Glassman James Kenneth Glassman (born January 1, 1947) served as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs from 2008-2009. He was, from 2009 to 2013, the founding executive director of the George W. Bush Institute, a public policy ...

in the mid-1990s. It featured panelists

Juan Williams Juan Antonio Williams (born April 10, 1954) is a Panamanian-born American journalist and political analyst for Fox News Channel. He writes for several newspapers, including ''The Washington Post'', ''The New York Times'', and ''The Wall Street ...

, Howard Fineman, Ruth Conniff, James Warren, and Mona Charen. The show did not feature any guests and was more cerebral than combative, in contrast to the Saturday version. In 1998, it was canceled, along with CNN's Sunday edition of ''

Crossfire A crossfire (also known as interlocking fire) is a military term for the siting of weapons (often automatic weapons such as assault rifles or sub-machine guns) so that their arcs of fire overlap. This tactic came to prominence in World War I. S ...

''. In 2005, after overall declining ratings at the network, CNN attempted to shake up its programming by cancelling several of its politically oriented shows, including the ''Capital Gang'' and ''Crossfire''. The ''Capital Gang'' panelists appeared together again on NBC's ''

Meet the Press ''Meet the Press'' is a weekly American television Sunday morning talk shows, news/interview program broadcast on NBC. It is the List of longest-running television shows by category, longest-running program on American television, though the curr ...

'' with

Tim Russert Timothy John Russert (May 7, 1950 – June 13, 2008) was an American television journalist and lawyer who appeared for more than 16 years as the longest-serving moderator of NBC's ''Meet the Press''. He was a senior vice president at NBC News, Wa ...

on February 17, 2008. With the Democratic presidential nomination race still very much undecided, and the role of the

superdelegate In American politics, a superdelegate is an unpledged delegate to the Democratic National Convention who is seated automatically and chooses for themselves for whom they vote. These Democratic Party superdelegates (who make up slightly under 15 ...

s in question, Hunt, Carlson, Shields, Novak and O'Beirne gathered to discuss the issues.

References

External links

Video of the Capital Gang on ''Meet the Press''
CNN original programming 1988 American television series debuts 2005 American television series endings 1980s American television talk shows 1990s American television talk shows 2000s American television talk shows {{US-nonfiction-tv-prog-stub