Journalists Corn and Lowry in political face-off here Thursday

Two political commentators who have no qualms about telling you what’s on their minds will square off in a liberal versus conservative debate at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 22, in O’Shaughnessy Educational Center at the University of St. Thomas.

Addressing a host of hot-button topics will be David Corn, Washington editor of The Nation and author of The Lies of George W. Bush, and conservative journalist Richard Lowry, a syndicated columnist and editor of National Review.

The debate, free and open to the public, is sponsored by St. Thomas’ University Lectures Committee. Tickets are not required; for more information call the Lectures Committee at (651) 962-6136, Ext. 2.

Titled “Face-Off: David Corn and Rich Lowry,” the debate will cover some of today’s most contentious topics: U.S. involvement in Iraq; energy and the environment; employment, Social Security and the economy; affirmative action in higher education; and same-sex marriage.

Moderating the debate will be Dave Nimmer, a former journalist with the Minneapolis Star and WCCO television and a member of the Journalism and Mass Communication Department at St. Thomas.

Both Corn and Lowry are contributors to Fox News.

Corn, who writes a Web column for The Nation called “Capital Games,” has broken stories on George W. and George H. Bush, Newt Gingrich, Colin Powell, Rush Limbaugh, Enron, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon. In his book, The Lies of George W. Bush: Mastering the Politics of Deception, he explores the issues of tax cuts, homeland security and the war in Iraq.

Lowry, as a student at the University of Virginia in the late 1980s, edited a conservative monthly magazine called the Virginia Advocate. He joined the National Review in 1992 and two years later became the magazine’s articles editor. He was named editor in 1997.

In addition to his biweekly syndicated column and his work as a political analyst for Fox News, he has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Reader’s Digest and other publications. He is known as a strong debater and unafraid to share his views.