A Philadelphia lawyer turned political commentator, Michael Smerconish has often been a guest fill-in host for Bill O'Reilly on the O'Reilly Radio Factor airing nationwide on the Westwood One Radio Network, and he has often been a guest fill-in host for Glenn Beck on the Glenn Beck Program airing on CNN Headline News. He has frequently appeared as a guest on David Gregory's Race for the White House, NBC.s Today Show, It's Your World with Neil Cavuto on Fox News, Hardball with Chris Matthews on MSNBC, the Sean Hannity Show on the ABC Radio Network, and Lynne Doyle's "It's Your Call" on CN8.
He is the author of three books and he writes separate, weekly columns for both the Philadelphia Daily News and Philadelphia Inquirer. Michael's columns have been re-printed in newspapers across the country including: Akron Beacon Journal, Atlanta Journal Constitution; USA Today; Tallahassee Democrat; Pittsburgh Tribune-Review; Sacramento Bee; Boston Herald; Kansas City Star; Press of Atlantic City; and Fort Worth Star Telegram. Michael Smerconish keeps a hand in law and remains 'of counsel' to the Beasley Law Firm in Philadelphia.
Smerconish is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Lehigh University with majors in government and journalism and a 1987 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He is an active member in the Pennsylvania Bar.
Together with Maureen Faulkner, Smerconish is the co-author of Murdered by Mumia, A life sentence of loss pain and injustice, a New York Times best seller. Neither Smerconish nor Faulkner kept any of the proceeds from the book, and instead gave One Hundred Seventy Thousand Dollars in author proceeds to a non-profit that supports the education of the children of murder victims in Philadelphia.
Smerconish is the author of New York Times bestseller Muzzled: From T-Ball to Terrorism, True Stories That Should Be Fiction.
Smerconish is the author of Flying Blind: How Political Correctness Continues to Compromise Airline Safety Post 9/11 (the recipient of a starred review in Publisher's Weekly). Smerconish donated all of his author proceeds (approximately $40,000.00) from this book to the Garden of Reflection, a 9/11 tribute erected in his native Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
At the age of 29 he served as a presidential appointee under George H.W. Bush as a Regional Administrator in the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
In January of 2002, he traveled as a journalist to Cuba as part of an official visit by U.S. Senator Arlen Specter where he interviewed and dined with Fidel Castro. His reports on this extraordinary meeting were serialized in the Daily News.
In 2003, author Bernard Goldberg re-published one of Smerconish's Daily News columns in his book Arrogance, a follow-up to his bestseller
