Although named after legendary Green Bay Packers running back Paul Hornung, Paul Orzulak’s first foray into speechwriting earned him the unlikely nickname of Dammit Orzulak. That’s because every time his first boss, United States Senator Tom Harkin, read one of his drafts, the review session would begin with the words, “Dammit, Orzulak.”
Paul has moved beyond that nickname to write speeches for chief executive officers and senior vice presidents at the world’s leading information technology, energy, media, healthcare, and entertainment companies. He has also written for heads of state, Presidential candidates, and numerous human rights organizations.
Paul served in the Clinton White House as a Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and Foreign Policy Speechwriter. Prior to that, he served as Senior Domestic Policy Speechwriter for Vice President Al Gore. During the 2000 general election, he was chief speechwriter and message advisor for Senator Joseph Lieberman’s campaign for Vice President. He has also served as senior advisor and chief speechwriter for Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo, U.S. House Democratic Whip David Bonior, and Senator Harkin, for whom he also served as chief speechwriter during the Senator’s 1992 campaign for President.
Paul has pumped gas, stacked pallets, labored as a farm hand, and worked as a writer for a global human resources consulting firm. He began his career as a sportswriter, which produced a memorable exchange with Mickey Mantle on the question “Whatever happened to the two-handed catch in baseball?”
A graduate of the University of Connecticut, Paul lives in Washington with his wife, Beneva Schulte, a public relations consultant, and their three daughters.
November 11, 2009 – 12:28 pm
It was impossible not to wonder what was going through the mind of former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev as he joined the throngs in Berlin this week to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Two Americans that have long been close to Gorbachev are Stephen Cohen, professor of Russian studies […]
How would the media cover the moon landing today? This video gives a taste. The Wolf Blitzer moment is priceless.
Twenty years ago, I was able to go to college thanks to student loans, Pell Grants, and parents who worked really hard to help me become the first person in our family to go to college. One of my favorite memories of Washington is the time I got to thank former Senator Clairborne Pell […]
Before she met and married her wonderful husband, Dave, my partner Vinca LaFleur was known as Vinca Showalter. I write because it is a big month in the Showalter family. Vinca’s mom, Elaine Showalter, is one of the founders of feminist literary criticism in United States academia, a leading writer on social and cultural issues, […]
By this point, America is probably about Sarah-Palined out, at least for this round. Everyone has an opinion on her announcement, and her future. I find the most interesting pieces over the past few days have come from women — like Ruth Marcus and Amanda Fortini — while wishing Peggy Noonan had weighed in, as […]
I’m having a hard time deciding whether Todd Purdum’s exhaustive profile of Sarah Palin in the new issue of Vanity Fair just isn’t that interesting, or if she’s just not that interesting. I think it’s the latter. Every revelation here, aside from the news that Mark McKinnon helped prepare the Governor for her debate against […]
What comes to mind when you hear the words, “manufacturing economy?” If you said, “China today” or “the United States, 30 years ago,” you’d be in the mainstream. Conventional wisdom long ago abandoned the idea of America as a manufacturing economy. We’re a consumption-led, services-based economy now. Right? In this speech before the Detroit Economic […]
Ed Walsh has quickly become one of my favorite conservatives. Of course, I disagree with him about 94 percent of the time, too, but he’s always thoughtful, and he’s always entertaining. Ed makes good points about a public health plan option, but I guess I have more faith in the private sector than he does. […]
A guest post today from another new addition to the West Wing Writers team, David Litt: As a 22 year-old, I’ve always associated the phrase “Evil Empire,” with the New York Yankees, not the USSR. I’m embarrassed to say that I had never even read President Reagan’s “Evil Empire” speech. I’d meant to, but, like […]
There is no question—as Clark states in his latest post—that President Reagan’s words helped empower Soviet freedom fighters in the early 1980s. But as the last administration demonstrated on more than one occasion—from “wanted dead or alive” to “mission accomplished” to “axis of evil”—there is a big difference between talking tough and projecting strength. To […]
January 20, 2009 – 10:20 am
Up to three million sets of eyes are expected to look upon the West Front of the United States Capitol today as Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. But I can’t help but think of one set of eyes in particular that will look in the other direction: […]
January 18, 2009 – 10:22 am
Let’s call it the faith-based equivalent of a cage match: on one side of our national Mall, this afternoon, V. Gene Robinson, the openly gay Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire, will deliver the invocation at the Beyonce-Bono-Springsteen inaugural celebration at the Lincoln Memorial. Two days later, the Rev. Rick Warren, the prominent mega-church pastor and […]
January 8, 2009 – 6:39 pm
It sure would have been nice to see a Ford among all those Buick dealers, not to mention a Reagan. But your sentiment about the historic change represented here is one we all deeply share. It brought to mind the graphic above that somebody created shortly after Election Day. Talk about dramatic. Also, not a […]
