Who

The former host of Lou Dobbs Tonight on CNN—and the network's onetime fear-mongering immigrant basher—Dobbs is said to be considering a run for elected office these days.

Backstory

Born in the Texas panhandle and reared in Idaho, Dobbs moved to LA after college to take a job with a bank. He soon decided to trade in finance for broadcasting, starting off at an Arizona radio station before stints on the local news in Phoenix and Seattle. He was recruited to join CNN before its launch, and anchored Moneyline following the network's debut in 1980. The program gave Dobbs unparalleled access to the moneyed movers-and-shakers of the business world; for close to two decades he hobnobbed with captains of industry on their private jets, spoke at corporate retreats, and even shilled for companies like Paine Webber. But after a dust-up with then-CNN head Rick Kaplan in the late '90s—and with dotcom fever overtaking the city—Dobbs left the network in 1999 to head up Space.com, a website dedicated to covering all things newsworthy about astronomy. As the internet bubble started to pop, Dobbs returned to the comfy confines of CNN in 2001.

Keeping score

Dobbs reportedly collects $6 million a year for his work at CNN.

Of note

When Dobbs returned to his evening newscast in the aftermath of Sept. 11th—and with corporate scandals dominating the financial news—he soon refocused his show and turned it into a soapbox for Dobbs to deliver his rabid opinions on immigration, welfare and terrorism. With segments like "Broken Borders," "War on the Middle Class," and "Exporting America," Dobbs' pseudo-populist, anti-elitist rants stirred up an enormous amount of controversy during his tenure, and his aggressive stances against illegal immigration and globalization have led many to argue that he's racist and xenophobic. Like Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh, many find his defense of "working men and women" something of an act, especially when he advocates his positions while nibbling on $56 Dover sole at the Four Seasons, as he did with the New Yorker's Ken Auletta in 2006.

Dobbs and CNN parted ways in the fall of 2009, as CNN execs grew tired of his increasingly opinioned broadcasts (and the criticsm that invariably followed), and as Dobbs, himself, considered ways to increase his advocacy work. These days he's said to be laying the groundwork for a campaign for elected office and is contemplating a run for Senate from his home state of New Jersey. Those with a bottomless appetite for Dobbs' immigrant-baiting, however, can always tune into his three-hour nationally syndicated radio show, The Lou Dobbs Show, which debuted in 2008.

Drama

Dobbs' tenure at CNN generated no shortage of criticism. In recent years, he's been accused of fudging facts to get his point across (the number of illegal immigrants who commit crimes, the number of illegal immigrants who have leprosy); he was also widely criticized for publishing a newsletter at a cost of $200 a year in which he touted many of the companies he condemned on his TV show. (The newsletter is now defunct.) More broadly, he was accused of presenting opinion as news, leading many critics to accuse CNN of indulging in the same tactics as its oft-criticized rival, Fox News.

Personal

Dobbs divorced his first wife in 1981 and later married former CNN anchor Debi Lee Segura (who, Dobbs is quick to point out, is Mexican-American). He has twin girls with Segura named Hillary and Heather. He has two sons—Chase and Jason—from his first marriage. Dobbs lives on a 300-acre horse farm in Sussex, New Jersey. (Both his daughters are competitive equestrians.) He also has a place in West Palm Beach.