Two words, Hillary Clinton.

I can't find it now - I think it was Charles Pierce - who described Him as "a chattering skull propped up on a stick."

... also, Carville isn't so much a Democrat (or a Southerner, for that matter) as a pundit. I hope and pray the media will stop turning to these demon jabberwockies now that actual Dems hold a modicum of power.  

The '08 election season started on Wednesday.  Just look at who was first out of the gate for the Democratic nomination, DLC Chairman Tom Vilsack.

It should come as no surprise that the centrist DLC-type Democrats will try to spin this election as a victory for their candidates and positions.  Everyone else (pro-Dean types, netroots, progressives, populists) just have to keep up the pressure and not let them win.

To paraphrase Hunter S. Thompson, "James Carville is a gutless old ward-heeler who should be stuffed in a bottle and shipped out on the Japanese current." Now. Before irreversible damage gets done.

I suspect you'd have to look far and wide to find a single Republican that would disagree with you here.

How did I miss this one?

What's amazing, though, is Michael [Berube]'s archival find--the alternative suggestion advanced at the time by Paul Begala and James Carville, the Democratic Party's self-appointed saviors:

By choosing former Georgia governor Zell Miller as his running mate, Al Gore could add intellectual brainpower, rhetorical firepower, and lots of plain old populist piss-and-vinegar to this staid election.

[...]

Miller would bring to the ticket a compelling personal story. In an election in which the final four candidates were the sons of a bank president, an admiral, a senator, and a president, Zell Miller was the son of a teacher--a teacher who died when Miller was just two weeks old. Raised by his mother in Appalachia, in a rock house she built herself, Miller found his focus in the United States Marine Corps, and his unabashed patriotism, combined with his down-home populism, makes him an American classic.

Zell Miller is also a world-class campaigner and orator. His keynote address to the 1992 Democratic convention ranks with Barbara Jordan's and Mario Cuomo's as one of the finest examples of powerful rhetoric and partisan passion.

At a time when politics seems moribund, Zell would bring energy. When people are looking for heroes, Zell's the real thing. And when Democrats need someone who's not afraid to open up a can of whupass on the radical right, they need look no further than Zell Miller.

 

(bump and update; see post)

____________________________

You can live a batter life, or a butter life. Or both, if you choose.

Indeed.