Paul Begala
Paul Begala, 2012
Born	Paul Edward Begala (1961-05-12) May 12, 1961 (age 51) New Jersey
Nationality	American
Education	University of Texas at Austin (BA, JD)
Occupation	Political consultant, political commentator
Political party	Democratic
Religion	Roman Catholic[1]
Spouse	Diane Friday

Paul Edward Begala^[2] (born May 12, 1961) is an American political consultant and political commentator. He was an adviser to President Bill Clinton. Begala was a chief strategist for the 1992 Clinton-Gore campaign, which carried 33 states and made Clinton the first Democrat to win the White House in twelve years. As counselor to the President in the Clinton White House, he coordinated policy, politics, and communications.

Along with James Carville, Begala gained national prominence as 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.

Early life and education[link]

He was born in New Jersey to an Irish American mother, Peggy (née Cass), and a Hungarian American father, David Begala. He was raised in Missouri City, Texas, where his father was an oil-field equipment salesman.^[3][4] In 1979, Begala graduated from Dulles High School in Sugar Land, Texas.

He earned both his Bachelor of Arts and Juris Doctor from the University of Texas at Austin, where he taught briefly. 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.^[5]

Career[link]

Begala, along with business partner James Carville, helped then-Governor of Arkansas Clinton win the 1992 presidential election. Begala was a chief strategist for the 1992 Clinton-Gore campaign. Clinton carried 33 states and became the first Democrat elected President since 1976. Begala served as a counselor to the President in the Clinton White House, where he coordinated policy, politics, and communications. Begala is a CNN political commentator and a research professor of public policy at Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute.

Aside from the 1992 presidential election, Begala and Carville have had other well-known political victories including the 1991 Pennsylvania U.S. Senate victory of Harris Wofford, the 1988 re-election campaign of incumbent New Jersey US Senator Frank Lautenberg, and the gubernatorial victories of Robert Casey in Pennsylvania in 1986, Wallace G. Wilkinson in Kentucky in 1987, and Zell Miller in Georgia 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 five political books: Is Our Children Learning?: The Case Against George W. Bush; Buck Up, Suck Up and Come Back When You Foul Up (with James Carville); It's Still the Economy Stupid; and "Third Term: Why George W. Bush (Hearts) John McCain. Begala still keeps on hand a pocket New Testament he received from Brother Jed in the 1970s.

He was an early supporter of Hillary Clinton during the 2008 presidential primaries. However, after she dropped out of the race, he became a backer of Barack Obama.

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 a consultant in the service of mortgage lender Freddie Mac, an arrangement that ended in September 2008.^[6]

Looking back at his career and the U.S. political scene, Begala has remarked that a "presidential campaign is like a film. It never comes together until it’s scored and tracked."^[7]

Personal life[link]

Begala and his wife, Diane Friday, have four sons.^[8]

Bibliography[link]

• Is Our Children Learning?: The Case Against George W. Bush, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000. ISBN 0-7432-1478-1
• It's Still the Economy, Stupid: George W. Bush, The GOP's CEO, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002. ISBN 0-7432-4647-0
• Third Term: Why George W. Bush (Hearts) John McCain, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008. ISBN 1-4391-0213-9

Co-authored with James Carville

• Buck Up, Suck Up... and Come Back When You Foul Up: 12 Winning Secrets from the War Room, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002. ISBN 0-7432-2422-1
• Take It Back: Our Party, Our Country, Our Future, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006. ISBN 0-7432-7752-X

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Paul Begala

• Paul Begala at the Huffington Post
• Paul Begala at the group blog TPMCafe
• Paul Begala at the Internet Movie Database

Tucker Carlson
Tucker Carlson at CPAC in February 2012.
Born	(1969-05-16) May 16, 1969 (age 43) San Francisco, California, U.S.
Occupation	News Anchor, Commentator, Pundit, and Columnist
Spouse	Susan Andrews
Website
dailycaller.com

Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson (born May 16, 1969) is an American political news correspondent and conservative commentator for the Fox News Channel. He is co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Daily Caller.^[1] He is a senior fellow of the Cato Institute^[2] and formerly co-hosted CNN's Crossfire and MSNBC's Tucker.

Family and education[link]

Carlson grew up wealthy in Carlsbad, a suburb of San Diego. He is the elder son of Richard Warner Carlson, a former Los Angeles news anchor and U.S. ambassador to the Seychelles who was president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and director of Voice of America.^[3] His adopted mother is Patricia Caroline Swanson (born 1945), former wife of Howard Feldman and an heiress to the Swanson food-conglomerate fortune.^[3][4] He has a brother, Buckley Swanson Peck Carlson.^[5][6] A great-uncle was Sen. J. William Fulbright.^[4]

He attended St. George's School, a boarding school in Newport, Rhode Island. After graduation, he majored in History at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

He is married to Susan Carlson, née Andrews. They have four children: Lillie, Hopie, Dorothy, and Buckley.^{[7][8][9][10]}

Journalism career[link]

Carlson began his journalism career as a member of the editorial staff of Policy Review, a national conservative journal then published by the Heritage Foundation (and since acquired by the Hoover Institution). He later worked as a reporter at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper in Little Rock, Arkansas and at The Weekly Standard.

As a magazine and newspaper journalist, Carlson has reported from around the world. He has been a columnist for New York and Reader's Digest. He has also written for Esquire, The Weekly Standard, The New Republic, The New York Times Magazine, and The Daily Beast.

Carlson joined CNN as its youngest anchor ever, remaining at the network until February 2005. Carlson got his television start in 2000 as co-host of The Spin Room opposite Bill Press.

[edit] CNN's Crossfire

He later was appointed co-host of Crossfire, where he represented the political right. During the same period, Carlson also hosted a weekly public affairs program on PBS, Tucker Carlson: Unfiltered.

Interview with Jon Stewart[link]

One of Carlson's most memorable appearances on Crossfire was his 2004 heated exchange with Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central, prior to the 2004 presidential election. Stewart criticized the format of shows like Crossfire, calling Carlson and co-host Paul Begala "partisan hacks," and asked them to "stop hurting America."

Carlson countered by criticizing Stewart's July 2004 interview with then U.S. Presidential candidate John Kerry. He accused Stewart of "sniffing Kerry's throne" and "not asking tough questions." Stewart replied, contextualizing his own show as a comedic rather than informational venue, "I didn't realize that [...] the news organizations look to Comedy Central for their cues on integrity." After Carlson told Stewart "I think you're more fun on your show," Stewart replied by saying: "You know what's interesting though? You're as big a dick on your show as you are on any show."^[11]

After their televised confrontation, Carlson recalls, Stewart "stayed at CNN several hours after the show to discuss the issues that he raised on the air... He (Stewart) needed to do this".^[12]

In January 2005, CNN announced they were ending their relationship with Carlson and would soon cancel Crossfire.^[13][14] CNN chief Jonathan Klein told Carlson on January 4, 2005, that the network had decided not to renew his contract.^[15] Carlson, however, claims he had already resigned from CNN and Crossfire long before Stewart was booked as a guest, telling host Patricia Duff: "I resigned from Crossfire in April, many months before Jon Stewart came on our show, because I didn't like the partisanship, and I thought in some ways it was kind of a pointless conversation... each side coming out, you know, [raises fists] 'Here's my argument,' and no one listening to anyone else. [CNN] was a frustrating place to work."^[16]

[edit] MSNBC's Tucker

Carlson's early evening show, Tucker, premiered June 13, 2005, on MSNBC (originally entitled The Situation with Tucker Carlson). The show lasted fewer than three seasons; the network announced its cancellation due to low ratings on March 10, 2008.^[17] The final episode aired on March 14, 2008.

Carlson had also hosted a late afternoon weekday wrap-up for MSNBC during the 2006 Winter Olympics, during which he attempted to learn how to play various Olympic sports. In July 2006, he reported live for Tucker from Haifa, Israel, during the 2006 Lebanon War between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. While in the Middle East, he also hosted MSNBC Special Report: Mideast Crisis. He appeared regularly on Verdict with Dan Abrams as a panelist in political discussions.

Fox News Channel[link]

In May 2009, it was announced that Carlson was hired as a Fox News Contributor. Since then, he has been a frequent guest panelist on Fox's late-night satire show Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld, made frequent appearances on the All-Star Panel segment of Special Report with Bret Baier, been a substitute host of Hannity in Sean Hannity's absence, and produced a Fox News special titled "Fighting for Our Children's Minds."

[edit] The Daily Caller

On January 11, 2010, Carlson and former Dick Cheney aide Neil Patel launched a political news website titled The Daily Caller. The editorial staff is led by executive editor Megan Mulligan and features reporting from White House correspondent Jon Ward,^[18] formerly of The Washington Times and reporter Alex Pappas. Other high-profile bloggers include Jim Treacher (DC Trawler) and Mickey Kaus (Kausfiles.)

In an interview with The Politico, Carlson said that The Daily Caller will not be tied to ideology but rather will be "breaking stories of importance". In a Washington Post article, Carlson added "We're not enforcing any kind of ideological orthodoxy on anyone."

Political views[link]

Partisan ambivalence[link]

Carlson has stated that while he votes and cares deeply about conservative ideas, he does not care about the success or failure of any political party.^{[citation needed]} In addition, his definitions of conservative views often conflict with the mainstream opinion.

Carlson has stated that former U.S. President George W. Bush is not a true conservative. Despite his general reputation as a political conservative, this and other views have been interpreted as partisan ambivalence by some Republican political figures and movement conservatives.^[19]

In an August 27, 2004, Washington Post interview, Carlson expressed his "displeasure with Bush." "Why do so many anti-war liberals give Kerry a pass when he adopts the Bush view on Iraq, as he has? The amount of team-playing on the left depresses me."^[20] Carlson did not vote in the 2004 election, citing his disgust with the Iraq War and his disillusionment with the once small-government Republican party.

"I don't know what you consider conservative," Carlson said, "but I'm not much of a liberal, at least as the word is currently defined. For instance, I'm utterly opposed to abortion, which I think is horrible and cruel. I think affirmative action is wrong. I'd like to slow immigration pretty dramatically. I hate all nanny state regulations, such as seat belt laws and smoking bans. I'm not for big government. I think the U.S. ought to hesitate before intervening abroad. I think these are conservative impulses. So by my criteria, Bush isn't much of a conservative."^[20]

Self-proclaimed conservative Republicans have accused Carlson of not being sufficiently conservative. This first began following Carlson's public and private endorsement of 2000 Presidential candidate John McCain. Speaking to Salon.com, Carlson responded:

1999 Bush interview[link]

In 1999, during the 2000 Republican Presidential primary race, Carlson interviewed George W. Bush, then Governor of Texas, for Talk magazine. Carlson reported that Bush mocked soon-to-be-executed Texas Death Row inmate Karla Faye Tucker and "cursed like a sailor."^{[citation needed]} Bush's communications director Karen Hughes publicly disputed this claim.^{[citation needed]}

Asked by Salon about the response to his article on Bush, Carlson characterized it as "very, very hostile. The reaction was: You betrayed us. Well, I was never there as a partisan to begin with. Then I heard that (on the campaign bus, Bush communications director) Karen Hughes accused me of lying. And so I called Karen and asked her why she was saying this, and she had this almost Orwellian rap that she laid on me about how things she'd heard — that I watched her hear — she in fact had never heard, and she'd never heard Bush use profanity ever. It was insane. I've obviously been lied to a lot by campaign operatives, but the striking thing about the way she lied was she knew I knew she was lying, and she did it anyway. There is no word in English that captures that. It almost crosses over from bravado into mental illness. They get carried away, consultants do, in the heat of the campaign, they're really invested in this. A lot of times they really like the candidate. That's all conventional. But on some level, you think, there's a hint of recognition that there is reality — even if they don't recognize reality exists — there is an objective truth. With Karen you didn't get that sense at all. A lot of people like her. A lot of people I know like her. I'm not one of them."^[21]

Supporting, then opposing, the U.S. war in Iraq[link]

Carlson initially supported the U.S. war with Iraq during its first year. After a year, he began criticizing the war, telling the New York Observer: "I think it’s a total nightmare and disaster, and I’m ashamed that I went against my own instincts in supporting it. It’s something I’ll never do again. Never. I got convinced by a friend of mine who’s smarter than I am, and I shouldn’t have done that. No. I want things to work out, but I’m enraged by it, actually."^[22]

Gay marriage[link]

On July 24, 2007, Carlson said on his show, "I'm just for marriage generally. I'm for people making a lifelong commitment. Do you know what I mean? I'm not against gay marriage, actually, and I'm the most right-wing person I know."^[23] Carlson later went on to say, "I think, marriage has been a great thing for me, and I think it's a really civilizing force, and I think it would be a civilizing force for gay people too."^[23]

Libertarianism[link]

On May 3, 2007, Carlson interviewed Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul and recalled voting for Paul in 1988 when he was running as the Libertarian Party presidential candidate.^[24]

On November 20, 2007, Carlson was seen showing his support at a Ron Paul rally in Reno, Nevada.

On the conservative Media Research Center-owned blog "Newsbusters", Carlson was called an "MSNBC conservative" explaining that: "Carlson is clearly the kind of conservative MSNBC could love - one who doesn't support the incumbent Republican president and opposes the cornerstone of his foreign policy. It's the same phenomenon that explains Pat Buchanan's ubiquity on MSNBC."^[25] At the 2009 Conservative Political Action Conference, Carlson was booed "for saying that the journalists at the New York Times care about accuracy."^[26]

On November 26, 2007, it was reported that Carlson lobbied Nevada brothel owner Dennis Hof to support Paul's candidacy. Explained Carlson, "Dennis Hof is a good friend of mine, so when we got to Nevada, I decided to call him up and see if he wanted to come check this guy out."^[27]

On September 2, 2008, Carlson participated in Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty Rally for the Republic in Minneapolis, MN, as the first speaker to introduce the rally and also acted as the MC by introducing nearly every guest speaker.

On February 23, 2009, Carlson was introduced as a senior fellow for the Cato Institute.^[28]

Bow ties[link]

Season 5, Episode 2 of Curb Your Enthusiasm ("The Bowtie") referenced Tucker Carlson when one character referred to Larry David as "Tucker Carlson" for wearing a bowtie.

On April 11, 2006, Carlson—who was known for wearing bow-ties—announced on his MSNBC show that he would no longer be wearing a bow-tie, adding, "I just decided I wanted to give my neck a break. A little change is good once in a while, and I feel better already."^[29] He now wears long neckties on the air.

On Red Eye he stated that the reason he retired the bow tie was that he was "Sick of people screaming obscenities at him on the subway"

[edit] Dancing with the Stars

On August 14, 2006, the ABC television network announced that Carlson would be a participant in its fall 2006 Dancing with the Stars reality show.

Carlson reportedly took four-hour-a-day ballroom dance classes in preparation for the competition, and mourned "missed classes" during an MSNBC assignment in Lebanon.^[30] "It's hard for me to remember the moves," he stated.^[30] When asked why he accepted ABC's invitation to perform, Carlson responded, "I'm not defending it as the smartest choice, but I think it's the most interesting. I think if you sat back and tried to plan my career, you might not choose this. But my only criterion is the interest level. I want to lead an interesting life." He concluded, "I'm 37. I've got four kids. I have a steady job. I don't do things that I'm not good at very often. I'm psyched to get to do that."^[30]

The gambling site BetBet placed Carlson's odds of winning the competition at 15:1.^[31] Jerry Springer was ranked as having the longest odds of winning, at 30:1.

Carlson, who was paired with professional partner Elena Grinenko, was voted off on September 13. His performance on the previous night was the lowest ranked among the judges; the low score resulted from him spending much of the performance sitting down in a chair.

At the close of the show Carlson said that teaching him to dance was "like Einstein teaching addition to a slow child."^[32]

Alleged bathroom grabbing[link]

On MSNBC Live, on August 28, 2007, Carlson told host Dan Abrams that as a teenager, an apparently homosexual man allegedly grabbed Carlson in a public restroom in Georgetown in Washington, D.C. As Carlson explained, "I went back with someone I knew and grabbed the guy by the -- you know, and grabbed him, and...hit him against the stall with his head, actually.... And then the cops came and arrested him."^[33][34]

In the initial exchange, Carlson only described the man as having "bothered him" in the restroom. A day later, Carlson described the incident in a statement to Media Matters for America, which had reported on the exchange, writing:

In the mid-1980s, while I was a high school student, a man physically grabbed me in a men's room in Washington, D.C. I yelled, pulled away from him and ran out of the room. Twenty-five minutes later, a friend of mine and I returned to the men's room. The man was still there, presumably waiting to do to someone else what he had done to me. My friend and I seized the man and held him until a security guard arrived. Several bloggers have characterized this is a sort of gay bashing. That's absurd, and an insult to anybody who has fought back against an unsolicited sexual attack. I wasn't angry with the man because he was gay. I was angry because he assaulted me.[3]

In multiple later airings of the August 28, 2007 episode of MSNBC Live, Carlson's comments about the 1980s incident were omitted.^[35] After his second statement, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) expressed outrage and called on Carlson and MSNBC to apologize for "remarks that appear to condone violent assault" against gay people.^[36][37]

Autobiography[link]

In 2003, Carlson authored an autobiography, Politicians, Partisans and Parasites: My Adventures in Cable News, about his television news experiences. One of the book's revelations was Carlson's description of how he was falsely accused of raping a woman he did not know. Carlson wrote in the book that the incident was emotionally traumatic and strengthened his belief in the presumption of innocence, particularly on allegations of a sexual nature.

References[link]

The Social List of Washington DC, The "Green Book"

The Social Register

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Tucker Carlson

• Tucker Carlson profile at NNDB.
• Tucker Carlson at the Internet Movie Database
• Media Matters' page on Tucker Carlson.
• "Hillary Clinton Has Sweet Revenge", CNN, July 9, 2003.
• Video of Tucker Carlson exchange with Jon Stewart on CNN's Crossfire, 2004.
• "Tucker Carlson to join MSNBC", MSNBC statement, February 2, 2005.
• MSNBC promotional video slot for Tucker.