"I don't like being a voyeur, looking into other people's marriages." -- Paul Begala
Paul Edward Begala (born May 12, 1961) is a Democratic political consultant, a political commentator, a former advisor to President Bill Clinton. He gained national prominence as half of the political consulting team Carville and Begala. Until June 2005, Begala was a co-host of CNN's political debate program, Crossfire. He is Research Professor of Public Policy at Georgetown University Public Policy Institute. Currently, he is teaching at the University of Georgia School of Law as a Sanders Political Leadership Scholar.
"Again and again, I've seen Bush turn a blind eye as his henchmen have leveled zealous attacks against his political enemies - assaults which the president himself has sometimes directly encouraged.""Again, President Reagan was sort of an amiable presence out at the ranch by the last 6 months of his presidency. He had no effect on national policy at all.""Bill and Hillary Clinton are the most investigated couple in American history - now the most thoroughly exonerated couple in American history.""Bush began helping Enron in the eighties.""But I think what happened was that Clinton knew how to fight back. And the way he fought back was on the issues - being tough in staying on the things that mattered to people in their lives.""Defining the terms of the debate generally dictates who's gonna' win it.""I didn't spend a lot of time on national security the American people will be glad to know.""I grew up in Tom DeLay's district.""I mean, for all of his faults and the troubles in his marriage, Bill Clinton is still married to a girl he met in the library 25 years ago at school. Can we say that about many of our other leaders today in America, including on the right wing?""I think too many Democrats are too wimpy. But I think they're beginning to toughen up.""I try hard to be a good Catholic.""I used to go in at 5:30 or 6:00 so I could run.""I was the guy that told Bill Clinton he was going to win. I had gotten the final polling numbers. He had a comfortable lead. He was not going to lose.""I'm a Catholic, but I used to love going to Vacation Bible School with my fundamentalist friends.""I'm very sunny. You know, I'm always optimistic.""If George W. Bush is given a second term, and retains a Republican Congress and a compliant federal judiciary, he and his allies are likely to embark on a campaign of political retribution the likes of which we haven't seen since Richard Nixon.""If it was about lying under oath - we actually know that Clinton certainly was deceptive, as most people would be about their sex lives - but, in fact, he did not lie.""It must kill George Bush that John McCain is the most popular and Beloved Republican in America.""It seems to me the American people never really forgave the Democrats for being right about Vietnam.""It taught me that Clinton's instinct to make this about your life as a citizen, rather than his as a human being, was the right answer to these things.""Most politicians, when they meet with a guy like me, or a guy like Carville, tell you about how they can win.""My view was that the campaign had been a sacred thing, that it had been a real compact, because I was there and I saw the connection that Clinton made with people, and the connection that they made with him.""Never interrupt your opponent when he's destroying himself.""One of the problems we saw in the last presidential election in our party is that our nominee, while winning the election, which we ought never to forget, often lost sight of the difference between strategy and tactics.""Politics is show business for ugly people.""See, I think if it just became who's sleeping with whom, then there's no reason to prefer one party over the other, 'cause the truth is we're all sinners.""So one important lesson of Vietnam is, the first casualty of an unwise and unjust war are the American troops called on to fight it. Their service should be honored.""There's the great line: the definition of a liberal is someone who's afraid to take their own side in a fight. And that's my problem with my fellow liberals.""This gets back to the fundamental lesson of political survival that Bill Clinton taught me, which is if you make it about the American people's lives instead of your life, you're going to be okay."
Begala was born in New Jersey to a Hungarian American father and an Irish American mother. He was raised in Missouri City, Texas, where his father was an oil-field equipment salesman. Begala is married to Diane Friday, with whom he has four sons. He is a practicing Catholic.
Begala graduated from John Foster Dulles High School in 1979. He earned both his B.A. and J.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, where he taught briefly before going to work for Bill Clinton. While at the University of Texas, Begala was a candidate for student government president. However, he finished second to a write-in campaign for Hank the Hallucination, a character from the campus comic strip "Eyebeam". Following his loss, Begala wrote a tongue-in-cheek complaint for the Daily Texan, arguing "I cannot help but feel Hank's platform is illusory at best... I must say that the candidate himself lacks substance." Begala was declared the human winner, following a ruling that imaginary characters could not hold the position.
Begala, along with business partner James Carville, helped then-governor of Arkansas Clinton win the 1992 presidential election. After working on Clinton's campaign, Begala served as a consultant to the President. As an aide to the President, Begala helped defend the Clinton-Gore agenda and served as a public spokesperson.
Aside from the 1992 presidential election, Begala and Carville have had other well-known political victories including the 1991 Senate victory of Harris Wofford, the 1988 re-election campaign of incumbent Senator Frank Lautenberg, and the gubernatorial victories of Robert Casey in 1986 and Zell Miller in 1990.
Before becoming a co-host of Crossfire, Begala co-hosted a show, Equal Time, with Oliver North on MSNBC. He also was a contributor to John F. Kennedy Jr.'s political magazine George in the late 1990s.
As an author and co-author, Begala has written a handful of bestselling political books. His writings include: Is Our Children Learning?: The Case Against George W. Bush; Buck Up, Suck Up and Come Back When You Foul Up; and It's Still the Economy Stupid. Begala still keeps on hand a pocket New Testament he received from Brother Jed in the 1970s.
2008
He was an early supporter of Hillary Clinton during the 2008 primaries. However, after she dropped out of the race, he became a late-to-the game backer of Barack Obama.
His latest book is Third Term: Why George W. Bush (Hearts) John McCain.
On January 12, 2008, Begala appeared on NPR's radio show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, playing the game "Not My Job." He won by answering two out of three questions correctly.
Begala was also a paid consultant in the service of mortgage lender Freddie Mac, an arrangement that ended in September 2008.
Paul Begala has an over-the-top style of commentary that has led him to be parodied on Saturday Night Live, where Begala has been a repeated guest, in an on-going skit of Hardball with Chris Matthews. Andrew Sullivan also gives out a Begala Award for "extreme liberal hyperbole". Many conservative radio personalities including Rush Limbaugh have nicknamed Begala "the forehead", highlighting his receding hairline.
Also critically, he is considered, with James Carville, to denigrate the grassroots popularity of Howard Dean's 50-State Strategy, which is to not just concentrate on already Democratic strongholds, but to adopt the successful strategy from the Republicans of building the Democratic party from the ground up, in every city and state in the union, and that every vote should be asked for and courted.
