Capital Gang

"The Capital Gang" was a weekly political talk show on CNN. It aired on Saturday evenings at 7 p.m. ET. Regular panelists included Pat Buchanan, Margaret Carlson, Robert Novak, Al Hunt, Mark Shields, and Mona Charen. Kate O'Beirne replaced Charen when she moved to "Capital Gang Sunday". Buchanan left the show to run for president in 1992. 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 panelists, while Shields, Hunt, and Carlson were the liberal commentators. The show debuted in the fall of 1988 and ran until CNN decided to cancel it in 2005.

"Capital Gang Sunday" was hosted by James Glassman in the mid 1990's. It featured panelists Juan Williams, 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, too, was canceled, along with CNN's Sunday edition of "Crossfire".

The "Capital Gang" was resurrected on the February 17, 2008 episode of NBC's Meet the Press with Tim Russert. With the Democratic nomination race still very much undecided, and the role of the so-called "superdelegates" in question, Hunt, Carlson, Shields, Novak and O'Beirne gathered to discuss the issues. [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3898804/]