Merrie Spaeth

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Merrie Spaeth (b. 1948-08-23) is an American political and public relations consultant. Spaeth writes a regular column for United Press International.

A Philadelphia native, Spaeth graduated from Smith College in 1970, and from the Columbia Graduate School of Business in 1980.[1] As a teenager, she starred in the film The World of Henry Orient with comedian Peter Sellers and another young actress, Tippy Walker.

Spaeth is best known for her role in attempts to discredit George W. Bush's political opponents. In 2004, she served as the chief public relations consultant for Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT). Previously, she was associated with the effort to discredit John McCain in the Republican presidential primary in 2000. Spaeth told National Review that she was approached to provide PR support after the Texas multi-millionaires Sam and Charles Wyly created the front group Republicans for Clean Air to attack McCain's environmental policies. Spaeth said that she agreed to field press inquiries for the group. It "turned out to be the biggest mistake, at least one of the top five," of her life, she said. "I regret being involved in any way." [2]

Spaeth has longstanding ties to Republican politics. During the Reagan administration, she served as a White House Fellow assigned to FBI Director William Webster. She was the first Fellow and one of the first two women on the director's staff. From the FBI, she served two years at the Federal Trade Commission as director of public affairs, and in 1983, President Ronald Reagan named her director of media relations at the White House. Merrie introduced satellite communications to the White House, and the electronic White House News Service. Later, she worked in communications for Ken Starr during the impeachment of Bill Clinton.

Writing in Salon, Joe Conason described her as "among the most experienced and best connected Republican communications executives. During the Reagan administration she served as director of the White House Office of Media Liaison, where she specialized in promoting 'news' items that boosted President Reagan to TV stations around the country. While living in Washington she met and married Tex Lezar, a Reagan Justice Department lawyer who ran for lieutenant governor of Texas in 1994 with George W. Bush, then the party's candidate for governor. (Lezar lost; Bush won.)" [3]

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