Begala was born in New Jersey and raised in Missouri City, Texas. He earned his undergraduate and law degrees 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 monster character from the comic strip "Eyebeam." Begala was declared the human winner, following a ruling that imaginary characters could not hold the position
Beaten by a cartoon character ! HA!
One of my favorite memories from the Gore-Bush election in 2000 was him and The Ragin' Cajun (Carville) on Crossfire, where Carville put the wastebasket on his head....it wasn't a big enough wastebasket, or Begala would have been in there, too.