AIPAC named Marshall Wittmann, a veteran political player who has worked for Democrats, Republicans and Independents, as its spokesman.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee has not formally announced Wittmann’s appointment, although he is at work this week.

Wittmann, 58, most recently the communications director for U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), is known in Washington as a “quote machine.”

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

He has worked for the Democratic Party’s centrist Democratic Leadership Council and served as communications director for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

Wittman also was an assistant deputy health secretary in the George H. W. Bush administration and worked for the conservative Heritage Foundation and Hudson Institute think tanks.

In the 1990s he served as spokesman for the Christian Coalition, which then was seen as an unusual appointment because Wittmann is Jewish.

Wittman is a favorite of reporters for his wit and candor. Among his more well-known coinages is the term “slime and defend,” used in 2003 in a then-anonymous attack on the Bush administration’s outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame in retaliation for criticism by her husband, former U.S. diplomat Joseph Wilson, for his criticism of its Iraq War policy. (A Republican congressional staffer at the time, Wittman later acknowledged the quote.)

AIPAC has been without a full-time spokesman since earlier this year.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount