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Marco Rubio's appeal to Washington's conservative and Republican establishment will be on display this Thursday at a fundraiser for him in the offices of the lobbying and consulting firm Navigators Global. The $500-a-head event's hosts include former Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter Liz, former Dick Cheney aide Mary Matalin, former Bush Iraq spokesman Dan Senor, consultants Alex Castellanos and Phil Anderson, and former Reps. Vin Weber and J.C. Watts. The honorary hosts of the event, which coincides with CPAC, are leading Hill conservatives, including Sens. Jim DeMint and Jim Inhofe, and Reps. Paul Ryan, Mike Pence, and Jeff Miller. Backing...

While trickery is a concern, the tracking all seems to be on Scott Brown's side. They have great turnout and ballot-integrity operations in place. The local pollster who always picks the three bellwether counties has Brown exceeding Cellucci's and Romney's numbers. Martha Coakley started cratering when Bill Clinton came in and imploded after Obama's attack on the truck. 59 percent think she ran a negative campaign; 15 percent think he did. Millions came in online in the last week. Conservatives have noted this but it has otherwise gone mostly unreported: Brown ran not only on the 41st anti-health-care vote, but...

Rush Limbaugh was talking about this yesterday. Rahm Emanuel, James Carville, Paul Begala, and George Stephanopoulos all get together each morning for a conference for a high level bull session. What's wrong with this picture? For the DUmmies what is wrong with this picture is they suspect that Mary Matalin is listening in as you can see in this THREAD titled, ""Mary Matalin has overheard daily calls with Rahm, Carville, Begala, and Stephanopoulos." Hee! Hee! I'm picturing a Civil War female spy overhearing high level conversations and then crossing over enemy lines to deliver the information to the other...

Mary Matalin, former counselor to Vice President Dick Cheney, is joining likely presidential candidate Fred Thompson’s team and will serve as an unpaid adviser. Matalin, who served as treasurer for Sen. George Allen’s unsuccessful re-election campaign last year, is a friend of Thompson and his wife Jeri, Politico.com reports. Also joining the Thompson team is Lawrence Lindsey, President George Bush’s first economic adviser and a proponent of his tax cuts. He will serve as chief architect of Thompson’s economic policy. Meanwhile, President Bush’s nephew George P. Bush – son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush – has contributed to Thompson’s...

GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump has an electable message, but is dead wrong on calling rival Jeb Bush "low energy," says Mary Matalin, a longtime political adviser to the Bush family. "Donald Trump can say whatever he wants to say about Jeb, but saying that he’s low-energy is wrong because the guy is an Energizer Bunny," Matalin said Sunday on "The Cats Roundtable" on AM 970 in New York. Bush has a record as a conservative governor in Florida that is often overlooked by people who compare him to his father, former President George H.W. Bush, and his brother, former...

"....Matalin, who served as a top political advisor to both presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, said she believes the favorite to win the GOP presidential nomination is Sen. Ted Crus (R-Tex), whom she said appeals to conservatives of all stripes. 'My money right now is on Ted Cruz,' she said. 'Again, I'm unaligned, but I think he speaks to the myriad factions of conservatism: Constitutionalists, Libertarians, the social conservatives.' 'I think he's whip-smart, as evidenced by his debate appearances, and he's a true, true, true constitutionalist, and everything's lining up for him,' she added. Matalin said the...

Former Bush family advisor Mary Matalin says she was “flummoxed” by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s performance at Wednesday’s GOP presidential debate. The veteran GOP strategist said Bush’s decision to go after Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) for missing votes in the Senate was an example of “political malfeasance.” “I love Jeb and I know Jeb, and I’m flummoxed by that,” she told host John Catsimatidis on “The Cats Roundtable” on New York’s AM-970, in an interview set to be aired Sunday. “It’s a violation of debate 101: Never ask an opponent or never address to an opponent something you know...

The wide variety of potential candidates for the Republican presidential nomination boils down to one question in many quarters — which one can beat Hillary Clinton? But to at least one powerful Republican consultant, Mary Matalin, the "Hillary" question is pointless. "Hillary Clinton’s lead is ephemeral," Matalin told Politico Magazine. "As soon as she gets in, if she gets in, she will be challenged and it will evaporate. Just the nature of the beast. I predict she doesn’t run." ---snip--- Political consultant and media strategist Mark McKinnon predicts a "Clash of the Titans" battle between Clinton and Bush for the...

On Fox News Sunday, Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol cautioned against conflating the various Obama scandals with the new revelations of NSA surveillance. "Conservatives and Republicans are making a huge mistake," Kristol predicted.

FREEPER COMMENTS REQUESTED: Is it just me, or is Mary Matalin way off base today with her entire theme for the show (guest hosting for Rush). Now I normally like her work tremendously, but her idea that we should search for "virtue" in government and for "virtuous people" to be in government seems extremely naive. The only virtue in government is its limit. We will never get a government full of virtuous people. By definition, government is power and virtuous people are not drawn to that. Our Founders knew that. This is why they insisted on LIMITED government. Wake up...

Until now, the only Democrat allowed to cozy up with GOP superstar strategist Mary Matalin was her husband, political consultant James Carville. My support for Mitch (Landrieu) has nothing to do with his party,' Mary Matalin said. But it looks like another member of the opposition has won a bit of Matalin's heart. According to an invitation circulating this week, Matalin is slated to co-host an upcoming $1,000-a-person fundraiser in Washington for Lt. Gov Mitch Landrieu. Matalin, who has spent time in the White House as an assistant to former President George W. Bush and counselor to former Vice President...

In a venture to the weird, Republican political strategist Mary Matalin is on tap to host a fund raiser for Democrat Mitch Landrieu in his bid for the New Orleans mayoral slot. NOLA reports that Matalin is slated to co-host an upcoming $1,000-a-person fundraiser in Washington for current Lt. Gov Mitch Landrieu, brother of Senator Mary Landrieu. Matalin says she is supporting Landrieu because of his common sense on issues and his leadership ability; she says it has nothing to do with party.

Bottom line: The book is a good read, an unusually detailed front-row seat view to how strained campaigns always are, and a compelling insight into Palin's perspective. Its long-term publishing and political impact are unknown for now, though as Palin moves out of the mainstream media monster publicity machine and into more hospitable, relevant political terrain, the prospects for success on both fronts improve exponentially. But its impact on personal and professional relationships is a sad one indeed and one I hope conservatives don't let it divide us just when we are marching toward a promising midterm, which reflects an...

Not bad.

Here is video from CNN yesterday where GOP strategist Mary Matalin was on with Democrat Strategist husband James Carville talking about the Health Care debate. Carville was his usual nasty self, launching into an attack on Sarah Palin and conservatives in general as being "nutty" for believing in Creation and holding traditional values. But Carville's wife Mary Matalin skewered him when he finished the attack by saying: Here's a rule for your viewers going forward for Sunday: The greater the Carville level of vitriol, the more they are losing." Matalin's rule is true across the board for Democrats and the...

Here is video of Democratic Strategist James Carville and his wife, Republican Strategist Mary Matalin talking about Gov. Sarah Palin's future and her chances in 2012 and beyond. Prior to discussing Sarah Palin, they first discuss the chances of Obama's Health Care legislation passing. Their discussion with Wolf Blitzer about Gov. Sarah Palin begins at the 4:14 mark of the video. Carville essentially says that Democrats would love to have Palin run as the GOP Nominee in 2012, and he says it's Conservative voices like Fred Barnes and Peggy Noonan that have been the hardest on Palin. Mary Matalin says...

A one-time aide to former Vice President Dick Cheney suggested Sunday that recent reports about Cheney and the CIA are a distraction designed to avert attention away from the policy struggles of the Obama administration. “This is very suspect timing,” Republican strategist and former Cheney adviser Mary Matalin said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union. “The president’s agenda is almost in shambles. His [poll] numbers are dropping. Isn’t it coincidental; they gin up a Cheney story.” Matalin also said that the Executive branch has some authority under the nation’s intelligence laws to not disclose information to Congress under certain...

Here is video of Republican strategist Mary Matalin saying she believes Gov. Sarah Palin's resignation announcement is a "brilliant" move that will rally many supporters around the nation in her defense. Matalin says she believes this assuming there is no scandal behind the decision, which she does not believe exists. . . . (Watch Video)

(CNN) — Mary Matalin, a former adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, sharply criticized former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage Sunday for his comments about the CIA's Bush-era interrogation techniques. In an interview with the English language service of Qatar-based network Al Jazeera last week, Armitage said: “I hope, had I known about it at the time I was serving, I would’ve had the courage to resign. But I don’t know. It’s in hindsight now.” In response, Matalin told CNN's John King on State of The Union: "If Richard Armitage, as the number two guy in the State Department,...

Appearing on Tuesday's "Today" show, Republican strategist Mary Matalin slammed the media for its "hair-on-fire" coverage of Sarah Palin's selection as the Republican vice presidential nominee of John McCain. In particular, she corrected a previous segment by David Gregory which asserted that the Alaska governor had hired an attorney to defend herself against an ethics probe into possible attempts to dismiss a state trooper. Matalin asserted to host Matt Lauer that it wasn't true "that she's hired a lawyer to deal with this trooper issue. The attorney general, state attorney general hired the lawyer." She forcefully added, "That's what they...