MODERATORS

BILL THOMAS, a contributing writer for The Washington Post Magazine and a former reporter for the Baltimore Sun, has been writing about Washington for more than twenty-five years. His articles have appeared in Vanity Fair, Harper’s, National Geographic, The New York Times Magazine, The Los Angeles Times Magazine and dozens of other publications. He is also the author of four books: Lawyers and Thieves (Simon & Schuster); Red Tape: Adventure Capitalism in the New Russia (Dutton); Club Fed: Power, Money, Sex and Violence on Capitol Hill (Scribners); Capital Confidential (Pocket Books)

Thomas has traveled on writing assignments to Europe, Central America ,and Asia. He has been to Russia and the former Soviet Republics more than three dozen times, writing about the break-up of the Soviet Union, and reporting on civil wars in the former Soviet Republics of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. He covered the communist coup attempt in 1991, Boris Yeltsin’s 1996 presidential campaign, and explored the mysteries of the Moscow Metro system for the Post Magazine.

Thomas, who began his journalism career at Congressional Quarterly, was the editor of The Washington Weekly newspaper and the executive editor of Dossier magazine. As consulting editor for Roll Call newspaper, he created and wrote the paper’s “Heard on the Hill” political gossip column.

In 1996, he was the founding editor of Capital Style, a news and opinion monthly magazine published in Washington by The Economist. Media Industry News named Capital Style one of the top 25 new magazines of 1997.

He has been interviews on network news and talk shows, from CNN and the BBC to “Entertainment Tonight” and C-Span’s “Book Notes.” He has also been a commentator on National Public Radio.

After studying for a Ph.D. in literature at the University of Washington, Thomas was a professor of English at Goucher College and at Hood College.

BOOKS

Lawyers and Thieves Simon & Schuster, 1990.

The New York Times called Lawyers and Thieves “wry, witty and eloquent.” The Wall Street Journal praised it as an “entertaining expose” of the legal profession. The Los Angeles Times said Lawyers and Thieves has “the quality of hard-boiled mystery fiction: tough, knowing and full of dirty little secrets.”

Red Tape: Adventure Capitalism in the New Russia  Dutton, 1992.

Kirkus Reviews recommended Red Tape as “a breezy, street-wise guide...that does for the New Russia what P.J. O’Rourke’s Parliament of Whores did for the US government.” Booklist called Red Tap “Hilarious!” “How things in Russia really work,” said the Hoover Institution.

Club Fed: Power, Money, Sex and Violence on Capitol Hill, Scribners, 1994.

The Washington Post praised Club Fed as a “timely...entertaining ... required reading.” The American Lawyer called it “a sprawling and ribald collection of salacious scandals.” Playboy said Club Fed “details the brazen state of corruption in Congress and leaves no doubt that we have the finest government money can buy.”

Capital Confidential: One Hundred Years of Scandals and Secrets in Washington, Pocket Books (paperback), 1996.