Victoria "Torie" Clarke (born May 18, 1959) is an American communications consultant who has served in several private sector positions and in three Republican presidential administrations, most notably as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs under Donald Rumsfeld.
Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Dr. and Mrs. Charles E. Clarke of Sewickley, Pa, Clarke graduated from George Washington University, after transferring from North Carolina State University, and began her career as a photographer for the since-defunct Washington Star. She was President of Bozell Eskew Advertising, Vice President of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, and the Washington office director for the public-relations firm of Hill & Knowlton. She has served as the press secretary to Senator John McCain and held positions on the staff of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. She subsequently moved to the Pentagon to serve as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs during President George W. Bush's first term in office, under Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Clarke currently serves as the Senior Advisor of Communications and Government Relations for Comcast Corporation.
Clarke has been a close colleague of Mary Matalin since the Reagan administration. Clarke often filled in for Matalin on the show Equal Time during its run on CNBC in the 1990s. Clarke is the author of Lipstick on a Pig: Winning In the No-Spin Era by Someone Who Knows the Game (2006, ISBN 0-7432-7116-5), a book about tackling 21st century information challenges. Clarke appeared on the February 7, 2006, episode of The Daily Show to promote it.
She is a frequent guest on the roundtable on ABC News' This Week with George Stephanopoulos. On May 20, 2008, she made her first appearance on the radio show of Tony Kornheiser.
Clarke is a Republican. She is married to J. Brian Graham, a Democrat. She is the mother of two sons, Colin and Charlie, and a daughter, Devan, who is an equestrian. Her sister Caitlin Clarke was an actress who died in 2004. She and her family live in suburban Washington, D.C.
Famous quotes containing the words victoria and/or clarke:
“Sometimes my wife complains that she’s overwhelmed with work and just can’t take one of the kids, for example, to a piano lesson. I’ll offer to do it for her, and then she’ll say, “No, I’ll do it.” We have to negotiate how much I trespass into that mother role—it’s not given up easily.”
—Anonymous Father. As quoted in Women and Their Fathers, by Victoria Secunda, ch. 3 (1992)
“Burn Ovid with the rest. Lovers will find
A hedge-school for themselves and learn by heart
All that the clergy banish from the mind,”
—Austin Clarke (1896–1974)