Vin Weber

Vin Weber (1952-) is Managing Partner of Clark & Weinstock, a lobbying and policy advisory firm. He is chairs the National Endowment for Democracy, and is a member of the board of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Aspen Institute, and theAdvisory Committees to the [{Defense Policy Board]] and U.S. Secretary of State's Advisory Committee on Democracy Promotion. At the University of Minnesota, he is a senior fellow at the Humphrey Institute and co-director of its policy forum.

Between 1980 and 1993, he was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives, for the 2nd District of Minnesota. In 1983, he was one of the members of the Conservative Opportunity Society founded by Newt Gingrich. He was also a member of the House Republican leadership. In 1998, he signed the Project for the New American Century letter to Bill Clinton, declaring Iraq a threat and recommending a preemptive U.S. attack.

In the 2004 United States presidential campaign, he was the Bush-Cheney '04 Plains States Regional Chairman.

Before starting Clark & Weinstock's Washington office in 1994, he was president of Empower America, and co-director with Jack Kemp, Jeane Kirkpatrick and Bill Bennett.

Prior to being elected to he was campaign manager and chief Minnesota aide to Sen. Rudy Boschwitz (1978-1980), and the co-publisher of The Murray County Herald (1976-1978).

In March 2010, he told Newsweek that Liz Cheney appeals to the "Sarah Palin constituency," but she has more intellectual credibility. "Nobody says about Liz" what they do about Palin, he says. Whether any of this is good for the Republican Party is anybody's guess. But at least a few moderate Republicans note—with some trepidation—that Palin may have a rival, and Dick Cheney may have an heir.