The Comeback Kids (WaPo review of Begala/Carville book)

www.washingtonpost.com ^ | Sunday, February 5, 2006 | Peter Beinart

[WestTexasWend]

The most interesting thing about James Carville and Paul Begala's new book is its subtitle. The two authors grace the cover, looking as if they want to punch someone. Across their torsos scream the words "Take It Back." And underneath, the subtitle reads "Our Party, Our Country, Our Future."

(snip)

The book's rhetoric is classic Dean, circa 2003: Washington Democrats lack the guts to take on President Bush. For Dean and his Internet progeny, however, this critique has two key implications: First, Democrats should shift power out of Washington and toward grassroots activists. And second, Democrats should not compromise their principles, even on unpopular issues, because that would simply reaffirm what many Americans already suspect: that Democrats don't believe in anything.

Carville and Begala...while flaying a mythic party elite, don't want to turn power over to the activists. How could they? While the Deaniacs loathe political consultants, the authors are political consultants. (snip) In Take It Back , Carville and Begala are trying to pull a bait and switch -- hijacking the Deaniacs' outsider rhetoric while retaining the insider structure that the Deaniacs revile.

What's more, Carville and Begala, while repeatedly saying that the Democrats need to stand for something, clearly believe the party must compromise on some signature issues. Their discussions of gun control, abortion and gay marriage are politically shrewd and coldly realistic: They want Democrats to swallow a ban on "partial-birth" abortion and live with parental consent for minors seeking to end a pregnancy; to forego any new federal gun control laws; and to give up, for the foreseeable future, not only on gay marriage but on overturning "don't ask, don't tell" in the military as well. (snip) Once again, Carville and Begala are trying to wrap the politics of Clinton in the language of Dean.

[ncountylee]

I detest Begala, one of the very worst of the Clinton butt boys.

[digger48]

So it's "Clinton Redux".....who's the Candidate?

Sure ain't gonna make this stuff fly with the Beast trying to sell it.

[Mo1]

.

[Cicero]

Excellent article, excellent analysis. This is the Washington Post, but the writer is The New Republic. TNR has done a lot of interesting criticism of their fellow leftists in recent years. I wouldn't want them running things, but they are good on the faults of their party.

In Take It Back , Carville and Begala are trying to pull a bait and switch -- hijacking the Deaniacs' outsider rhetoric while retaining the insider structure that the Deaniacs revile.

[SouthCarolinaKit]

I'm boycotting WAPO even for good authors: Charles Krauthammer; I'm certainly not going there for these eedjuts.

[ClaireSolt]

Exiling these two would make dems more attractive.

[SquirrelKing]

[operation clinton cleanup]

The two authors grace the cover, looking as if they want to punch someone

I could see Carville taking a swing at someone, but Begala? Please! I see him as more of a slapper...

[Candor7]

MY PRERCIOUSSSSSSS!

This first photo is Carvell in Disguise:

This Second Photo is the REAL Carvelle. Who would want to read ANYTHING he wrote ??

[new yorker 77]

BARF!

Clinton barely won in 1992 with these two morons.

In 1994, they failed to see the GOP surge.

In 1996, Clinton abandoned these two nitwits and brought back Dick Morris in order to run his re-election campaign.

[Malesherbes]

When "the most interesting thing" about the book is its subtitle, I think I'll skip it. On the other hand, I would have skipped it in any case.