James Carville holds forth (once again)

James Carville keeps burnishing his reputation as the go-to guy for quotes that definitely catch one's attention.

We initially missed, we must confess, his earthy comment to Newsweek's Eleanor Clift, providing his take on the relative toughness of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. But Maureen Dowd of the New York Times did us a favor by referencing it in her Sunday column, so we backtracked and found the Clift piece.

Here's its concluding sentence:

Hillary is the tougher of the two, the candidate you want on your side in a knife fight, a gender reversal that prompts Carville to indulge in some ribald humor: "If she gave him one of her cojones, they'd both have two."

For whatever reason, similar paeans to Clinton were all the rage last week (recall this comment by a union leader in Indiana).

Carville's fierce loyalty to Clinton was most obviously spotlighted, of course, with his controversial "Judas" remark after New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson endorsed Obama awhile back. He had no new trashing of Richardson to offer Clift (or, if he did, she didn't write it). But Carville offered this thought about Obama's current political status (note that he does give the Illinois senator some props):

"He had the greatest fastball anybody had seen, and now it's 'Hey man, can you throw a change-up?' He needs another pitch in his repertoire."

For the entire column, go here.

-- Don Frederick 

Comments

[Bill]

Carville sleeps with a Republican who lies without compunction. What does that tell you about his cojones?

[Bradley]

Carville is nothing but another Clinton throwback we need to put to bed. Change, its what's for dinner, eat it Bill, er I mean Hill. Isn't this just opening up the door for Jeb in 2012?

[Ron]

Is there anybody out there who hasn't worked for Bill Clinton and is a traitor if he or she backs Obama ? If Hillary wins, do we still have to hear this idiots rant ?

[Lynn Levine, Minneapolis]

ABC News last week showed Hillary Clinton standing in front of a closed magnet factory in Valparaiso, Indiana, saying that George Bush shut that factory down and sent it overseas. "Not only American jobs but American military secrets," were exported, she wailed. Turns out though that it was Bill Clinton who did so, not Bush.
I agree with James Carville that Hillary has three cojones, and that Barack Obama lacks some of the "knife fighting" credentials we currently associate with U.S. politics.
That is why I am voting for him.

[Tom J]

James Carville and the Clintons are like Lollapalooza. Lots of fun in the 90's, now we wonder WHAT WERE WE THINKING?!?!

[bob kholos]

A Wellsley girl worth 100 million dollars in a knife-fight!
Nasty James Carville reminds me of the 1950s movie--"The Thing."

[N.E. BodybutHillary]

Apparently, James Carville has no offspring that Hillary would be sending off to her war to obliterate Iran. War is fueled with expendable youth. Youth having no relation to those in government. Hillary said she will obliterate Iran, let her send Chelsea. Don't vote for another war, don't vote for HRC.

[Jenny Holder]

It's like High School all over again -- HRC the plastic society girl. desperately trying to be cool and using every trick in the book to win..and the scrappy kid from the wrong side of the tracks who tells his truth -- Barack Obama! After tonight it's time to concede HRC, for the good of the country!

[WTL]

This aging boomer signs up for what he began his youth with in the '60s: hope. I had hope in JFK, MLK, RFK, in a new way of being human and American. I worked hard for it. But with that kind of history of hope, it's hard to let myself do it again. Yet I look at these young people, and how they shine through the deaths of my hopes and of the millions of youths sacrificed to immoral, useless war and the cold-hearted greed of the rich and the Right, how they embody what I had cynically given up on - hope, naive, enthusiastic, committed hope - and I think, well maybe...OK, I'll give it one last run...I love what he says about hope and unity (the color of his skin shouts hope and unity) and building on the fundamental things we all have in common...and I hope he means it...

[flora68]

James Carville needs to wake up and smell the burnt toast that was Hillary, and he and Jeremiah Wright BOTH seriously need to just shut up and go away. But with the egos involved, that's not likely.

[chris allen thomas]

Responding to the news (of McGovern's withdrawal of Clinton and his endorsement of Obama), Clinton spokesman Mo Elleithee said "Senator Clinton appreciates Senator McGovern's friendship, but believes the voters in the upcoming states should have their voices heard in this process."

When Governor Richardson endorsed Obama, he is a Judas. What is the difference? Richardson is a minority who owes his life to the benevolent Clintons, and McGovern is white. It must be remembered that when pressed on this issue, Hillary Clinton REFUSED to denounce Carville's portrayal of Richardson.

James Carville, if you read this blog, tell me what you have to say about this blatant disparity of reaction to former Clinton supporters? What do you think of McGovern? Are you just a neo-Dixiecrat?