Known for his witty political analysis, he was a syndicated columnist and a genial presence on television.
Mark Shields, a onetime campaign manager who became one of Washington’s most respected political commentators, both as a syndicated columnist and as a genial liberal counterpart to several conservative sparring partners on PBS NewsHour, died June 18 at his home in Chevy Chase, Md. He was 85. The cause was kidney disease, said his daughter, Amy Doyle. Mr. Shields spent more than a decade working on Capitol Hill and managing Democratic political campaigns before turning to commentary in 1979, when he joined the editorial board of The . He soon became a nationally syndicated columnist and a regular presence on television panel shows, eventually spending 33 years as a commentator for what is now PBS NewsHour. The Wall Street Journal once called Mr. Shields one of the “wittiest political journalists in America” and “frequently the most trenchant, fair-minded, and thoughtful.
