How does James Carville do it?

How does he stayed married to Mary Maitlin? I was watching her Sunday on MTP and James definitely is "subdued" around her compared to Crossfire. Also, I listened to her yelp about Dick Cheney on "Imus" yesterday morning. She kept telling--no yelling-- to Imus to quit calling Dick Cheney a "liar." Then she went on a spill of how "respectable" the man is and that Imus didn't know what he was talking about regarding the "kool-aid" of WMD and the lead-up to the war.

She makes my skin crawl...what is up with that marriage and how does it last..?

I can't stand it when people don't move their mouths when they talk

yes, that overbite drives me nuts too!

Oral Sex! No really, I think they are able to compartimentalize their personal lives from their business lives. Let's face it, they both have a job to do and they both do it well (we may not always agree with them). I would love to be at their breakfast table when they do talk shop however.

I am always amazed at responses both here and on FR from people who indicate that there is no way they could ever be friends with or ever interact gracefully with someone from the opposite side of the political spectrum.

People are not defined exclusively by their political affiliation and most people don't define every little thing in their lives by whether it meets their sense of ideological purity.

My entire set of in-laws are wholly and unapolegetically Republican and we never have any problems getting along with each other and can discuss differences of opinions graciously.

I would suggest that James and Mary and others who share their ability to compartmentalize their lives to be better adjusted individuals than partisans who see anyone who holds the opposite political view to be an enemy who isn't worth getting to know on other levels.

You're saying that there is no reason a Jewish woman couldn't be be happily married to Adolph Hitler?

This is the fucking problem....compartmentalizing...as you call it. People ARE defined by thier political ideology. It is who you are and what you stand for. Denying this simple truth for the sake of getting along is disengenuous and hypocritical. It is the reason that Neo-Cons exist. They have succeeded in convincing people like yourself that deep down they are really nice folks....even though they are fascists. We'll see what you say when your ass is being marched to a zyclon B shower by them nice folks.....Perhaps on your way you can discuss what a nice day it is, football, what your kids are up to...you know, get to know each other on another level.


RC

I really think you are going to a ridiculous extreme with your examples!!! My family are staunch republican idiots! I am an enlightened democrat. We get along fine. Mary M and Jim have jobs that are at opposite ends of the political spectrum. They may agree on many other things (music, sports, religion, ect.) Your diatribe is similar to the tactics used by Newt Ginrich when he took power and it is the downfall of all political discussion. Tip O'Neill and Bob Michel used to go out for beers after a day of hammering each other in Congress. It is okay to like the sinner but hate their sins.

political atmoshpere. There are still friendships among really different people (Kennedy/Hatch, for example). But even that friendship has been strained in the poisonous atmoshpere of today's politics.

I have to agree, I would find it terribly difficult (impossible?) to be in any kind of relationship with a hatchet woman like Matalin. Unless they are both complete whores, and they are not like they are when "on the job" and don't really have the beliefs they push on TV.
That could be.

i do not trust carville because matlin is just too connected with the evilist factions of BushCo.

he should be repulsed by her. it is a matter of one's SOUL.

Who are you to decide who someone should be "repulsed" by? Who are you to decide for him who to marry or be with? Are you privy to what goes on behind closed doors in their marriage?

And aren't we always blistering the right-wing wingnuts and fundies for trying to make our personal, intimate decisions for us and thinking they have the right to do so? So what right, then, do WE have to do the same thing? NONE!

otherwise, i find your indignation regarding my answer amusing and wildly overdramatic.

no, actually, i found it bemusing.

mean that someone else wouldn't or that they wouldn't have the right to marry who they want to marry. You still don't have the right to determine for people who they marry or are involved with, or judge other people's relationships.

to "judge" however, I'm sure it's hard to reframe at times, but rather it's meant more as a "what the hell.." and "what's the interest..." sort of thing. I know these two have been together a long time, but you have to admit in these volatile political times, the question does come up more often than not--maybe not overtly, but definitely in our minds.

Just one more topic of conversation on a slow news day.

character.

Matalin must give a hellatious blowjob. I'd like to think something worthwhile was going INTO that nasty little mouth to counteract the vicious bile that's alwasy spilling OUT.

I'm able to have friends who are of a, shall we say, different political persuasion than me, I've been friends with some of them since junior high school.

I've been able to enlighten them on a few issues (one friend's parents, who were richer than God, dissed teachers all the time and especially teacher's unions, so my friend did too, parroting their lines. My parents are both teachers, we had nowhere near the money she did, and she was able to see the truth about teachers and that not every family had as much money as hers did).

And they were able to enlighten me on a few things too, such as being rich and conservative doesn't mean you don't have problems (you just have more and better resources to solve them, lol!) I wouldn't trade those friends for anything. And my parents, who are even more liberal than me (if that's possible!) also have conservative friends.

But as for being romantically involved with or married to a conservative, republican man, HUH-UH, NO WAY, THAT is where I'd draw the line. I don't think I could deal with it, not even for one day. I wouldn't want to, anyway, because my liberalism is such an integral part of who I am and I would need to be with someone who not only understood that but who felt the same way.

That being said, no one has the right to determine who another person should be involved with or question them about "how they can stand it", etc., that is THEIR business and theirs alone. And Carville and Matalin probably ARE able to compartmentalize their lives in a way that other people can't, and that's their business. If they want to be together, they have that right and it's no one else's business.

discussing politics it is my right to discuss them

Mr. Carvilles integrity and devotion to the cause he is and was payed quite handsomely to promote.

Matlin is not simply a Republican...she is the chief architect of a corporate political theology constructed of and defined by lies, innuendo, misdirection and obfuscation, built upon a foundation of racial intolerance, religious intolerance, gender intolerance, cultural intolerance, class intolerance and intolerance of sexual orientation, to name a just a few. This is the definition of a fascist. Fascist philosophy and action is a very real, pervasive, physical threat to me, my family and my countrymen. Fighting fascism is not a cartoon battle from which one retires at 5:00 every night, it is a life and death struggle....not to preserve the moral fabric of society but to protect the lives of those I love.

A friend of my enemy is not my friend. Someone who claims to love a person who is evil incarnate is not my friend. Blood is thicker than water. Someone willing to check their morals at the door in the persuit of carnal desire will check them at the door for anything else. Don't fool yourself that these simple truths do not apply to Jimmy boy. His marriage makes quite plain his willingness to do both. I don't need nor do I want such an individual giving the world the impression that he speaks for me. I do not check my moral compass at the door for any person or any reason...it is who I am and what I am. It is my moral compass that defines me. It is my soul. I can only hope it is this quality that the woman whom I might one day meet, court and marry bases her love for me upon. It is that quality in her, I shall base my love for her upon. Not sex, not taste, not money, not stature and not appearance. Ive had relationships based upon one or a combination of the above, relationships which required me to sell myself out, to keep quiet. In spite of protestation to the contrary they were not based upon real love but something immoral and sick...the baser instincts. They required me to disengage from my soul and resulted in actions that I came to realize were unclean and dishonest to myself and my partner. They required me to whore myself for what amounted to periodic, fleeting, hollow, superficial pleasures. I'd prefer to be alone than to live that lie, to ignore who I am and what I stand for or to expect the person I love to do the same. If you are unwilling or unable to expect a shared moral compass with the person you claim to love how the hell can you realistically expect it of anyone else? If you don't expect it from anyone else is it not disingenuous to make your living on the pretense that you do? Of course it is.....

RC

it isn't about being "partisan," so don't try and label it as such. They are two EXTREME political views and even though they may " compartmentalize" their views to weave into their lives, there still remains an irresistable curiousity on how these political figures manage to get along. Maitlin was talking about her daughters also screaming at Imus about Kerry, so it's taking a life of it's own with her help.

They're not disagreeing on relatively superficial matters like
one always wants to eat out at Indian restaurants and the other's allergic to curry; or one wants the kids to go to Harvard and the other favors a state university; or one wants to vacation in the mountains and the other wants to go on a cruise ship. This is like the DA being married to a consigliere for organized crime. The only way I can see them being happy together is if both of them are phonies and don't really believe in what they so passionately scream about in public, and for big bucks. If that's the case, then they were made for each other.

I have not maintained friendships, let alone a marriage, with long time friends who have continued to blindly support the present administration. I cannot respect them for blocking their own intelligence, regardless of the realities. To quote John Maynard Keynes, "When the facts change, I change my mind - what to you do, sir?"

That places them where they are. They are debate geeks. They love the political fight. The issues are secondary to them. They just happen to be playing for different teams.

nt

about Carville. Having watched him debate enough I have seen him go for strawmen arguments and other unfair tactics that suggest that the win is more important to him than the issues. These have been deliberate redirections of arguments. He is very good at his game. But this just tells me that it is the game that is taking precidents.

I am unaware of any fighting idealoge in the arena these days aside from Nader. And he is cooked. He chose the wrong tactic.

artfully argue which ever side pays them the most. Gee that's just who I want speaking for me! Uh huh! Isn't that sort of like someone who will fuck who ever pays them the most? That's called a whore, right?

Fuck Carville....I hope he get's whatever disease Cheney is squirting down his whores throat.

RC

" The only way I can see them being happy together is if both of them are phonies and don't really believe in what they so passionately scream about in public, and for big bucks."

I'll bet they are. Hell, if the bucks are big enough, you can do almost anything.

I could no more be in a relationship, much less married to a ReTHUG shill than I could to a Fundy.

"Compartmentalize", that's a good one. Explains Ari Fly-shit and his "beard", don't it?

My family are over-the-top Republicans: Ayn Rand crazies and religious reichers. I have zero respect for them. However, I do have a gentle, kind fundamentalist friend who trusts Shrub. He once tried to proselytize me. I ate his liver with a side of fava beans and a nice chianti. In all seriousness, there was a big fight. I don't like being preached to about the evils of being an atheistic liberal.

We have other areas where we can connect: music, for one. So we have a standing agreement to not discuss religion (which he broke that one time). I like this man. I do not like his religion. I do not like his politics. I think he has been misled and is a slave to dogma. That saddens me.

On another level it makes me angry. I'm tired of being angry. I'm surrounded by fundies and neo-cons. How can I survive without being consumed by anger?

I won't add the more impolite ones to complete the phrase...

n/t

Mary probably makes more $ than James, and James is no fool.

I think James is pretty laid back and just deals with her. I'm sure they probably agree on more than less in the opinions as well.

If anything, they are a classic example of people who can have differing political opinions who don't take it personally or try to demonize the other.

They both are pretty intelligent. All she needs to do is maybe hire a fashion designer to get rid of those awful outfits she tends to wear and possibly get some brighter light in the bathroom so she's not scopping out eye makeup with a shovel.

:evilgrin:

Politics is a very tactics oriented field (duh). There are those that are addicted to the challenge of such things. It is a game to them. Carville and Maitlin are such players. The issues and causes are distant seconds for them. It is the game that means everything.

They can seperate the differences their teams have because they are just playing for their team. Their team is not their life. Their life is the game and the teams merely a means to facilitate their play.

spiderman! thats pretty cool.

just had to comment on that--he caught my eye!

wipe the floor with shrub's ass. He doesn't want to pour salt on the wounds.

I think they are a wonderful example of two people who love one another enough to set some personal opinions aside.

and she about him? Give me five things for each.

RC

...they are both attracted to 1)strong, 2)confident, 3)political minded, 4)aggressive, 5)outgoing people...

And they are what any couple appreciates in one another:

Sense of humor (whether you've observed it or not)
Common goals and shared parenting values in raising a family
Appreciating one another's intellect even if they disagree on politics
Physical chemistry
A sense of belonging together
They enjoy each other's company
Common interests and activities

Frankly, I'm happy that they can make it work.

the empathetic person Carville purports to be could find the suffering of other human beings humerous? His wife and Anne Coulter do. Bet that leads to nights of ribald guffaws, right?

You believe that Mr. Carville and his wife have common goals? What, like the US evolving into a global imperial corporate power which survives on the backs of slave labor and maintains itself via the subjugation and murder of those of different race, religion culture and nationality? Do they teach their children to operate in the same fashion on an interpersonal scale with there "friends"?

As far as intellect goes....let us compare it to shooting ability. Suppose you enjoy shooting guns. Suppose your are a good shot who is capable of recognizing and appreciating that skill in others. Would you appreciate that skill in an idividual who demonstrated it by shooting defensless people precisely between the eyes? Such is the way Ms. Matlin demonstrates her intellect. Hardly something worthy of appreciation by anyone who believes in the continued existance of humanity.

If Hitler were a real nice fellow to you and you alone and you happened to be a Jew....could you possibly enjoy his company knowing it was his mission to eradicate every single Jew on the face of the planet with prejudice? If you could....you're a piece of shit of the lowest order.

What common interests and activities might they enjoy? Maybe they like to go out to eat. They enjoy the food cooked by a guy who spent two years in culinary arts college and ain't gonna be getting overtime for the 70 hour weeks he puts in because of Mary and her minions. Maybe they enjoy looking out their window at a nicely tended lawn that some illegal immagrant is servicing because Mary has made sure "he has a job waiting for him" which pays 3 dollars an hour. Maybe they enjoy chatting with the older couple who lives next door, the couple that Mary is trying to screw out of their medicare and social security. Maybe they enjoy playing bridge with the guy down the street who's gone to college for 6 years studying IT but is always available for a game becuase Mary and her minions rewarded his former employer for outsourcing jobs like his to India. I don't believe any person with a lick of integrity could enjoy the company, common interests or activities couples enjoy when all three are overshadowed by the ugly, offensive, condescending, evil, parasitic nature of one of the participants.

About the only argument you presented that might make sense is physical chemistry....In other words they like to fuck.....but that's no more demonstrative of the love marraige is based upon than a John and a hooker humping behind the dumpster in the alley next to my apartment.

RC

Goddam "librul"!

Shit, he and his wife are two sides of the same coin....a couple of hucksters making money spouting party line.

She's yelling at Imus because she's the one who has crafted Cheney's lies. That's her job. If he goes down, she goes down. It's really sort of sad for her that she came up rock and Jimmy boy came up paper when they were deciding which side to bark for. Sad because all her husband has to do is spout simple truths....she's got the harder and much more dangerous job of engineering lies and obfuscation for her half of the bread and butter. Obviously the alfa in the relation...she carries the heavier load. I'm guessing the average Saturday night at the Carville household includes ole Jimmy crawling around on the linoleum in a black leather jock strap, bright read ball gag in his mouth getting wipped on the ass by a thigh boot wearing, studded corset clad, screeching harpy...mistress Matlin.

RC

They never talk politics at home

As ones politics are pretty representative of the type of person they are, what's important to them, the boundries of their integrity and moral scope....how can an undercurrent of politics not pervade in day to day life?

RC

on either side of the political aisle who think either Jim or Mary really believe what they're screaming. Political differences in 2004 are not the same as in earlier eras. Marriages and friendships could survive if politically-realted disagreements were limited to one or two issues, particularly if those issues didn't directly impact on the relationship. But today, the divide is huge on everything from health care to education to social security to the environment to "nation building/preemptive war", and the economic impact of the policy decisions and actions of the administration for the last four years will devastate our country for decades and generations to come. The divide between rich and poor is increasing, and the middle class is going down the rabbit hole. The social security surplus has been raided and we will become like a third world country where there is no such thing as retirement, and people work until they die, or hope they have family to take them in. To avoid discussing or considering the impact of the current goverment on myself and my family and friends would reduce me to watching these pathetic (un) "reality shows" on TV. Talk about the czar and czarina having tea with Rasputin while the masses are storming the gates of the Winter Palace.

..they are both like a tag team of con-artists in that no mater who is in the White House, they can play up both sides of the same issue, get attention, and say absolutely nothing.

But at the same time, milking the Political Money Machine for every thing its worth.

Not a bad deal for both of them.

Being able to compartmentalize to that extent would verge on the pathological. To me its all part and parcel.

He went to Central and South America for political work, since bush* has been in office.

Money, Money. James drains money from the democrats, Mary drains from the republicans, and they both laugh happily to the bank. I don't like James at all. What he has is a dog and pony show, well screened and rehearsed with his wife. If you guys can't see that, than you must believe that cheney is human and that ronald raygun is alive.

Shared love of cocaine? They both wipe their noses a lot.

Bev

the ragin' cajun as a snowblower...

I would have to inject heroin into my brain to suffer that shrill neocon nasty bitch for one second!

I can't imagine how their kids must feel, though, listening to them argue all the time about politics. They'll probably be pretty well educated and will be good citizens who make informed choices.

cause I wouldn't put it past Mary to try and secretly access them like the repuke staffers working for Boring Hatch and the repuke members of the judiciary committee.

Carville and Matalin started dating in the early 1990s before the Clinton/Bush campaign of 1992.

I think Carville and Matalin are the kind of people who probably enjoy their political differences and jousting between each other -I think that true love can transcend political affiliation

I understand getting along with in-laws and republicans but to be married to one who is so partisan and a political polar opposite. But I don't find Carville to be all that pure and he may agree with her more than he lets on. Or if she is half-way intelligent she CAN'T believe all she says. I'm sure money and power are a big part of it.

I mean I know people want to get paid. But I think these two in particular have very little genuine beliefs and are just making a buck. If he was some kind of idealist. How could he be with someone who represents people that are destroying the world?

Its just a business and kind of a game to them. More about winning and making a buck, less about people's lives and the future of this country. I like the Ragin Cajun but I really don't take much of what he says as anything but political posturing.
Scott

In fact, why have any commitments to your ideology in the first place?

After all, it doesn't pay.

They're both instigators paid to whip up the base of each party. Every time Carville says something deeply cutting, he gets showered in money and his wife adds another five paid interviews to her schedule, writes a few pages of her book, and vice-versa.

Money is indeed the mother's milk of politics and some are better milkers than others.

"FUCK BUSH" Buttons, Stickers & Magnets

Imus was really laughing it up the other day about Cheney's continuing statements about wmds. Cheney is a joke, and even the corporate media is figuring it out.

that's got to be going over well

Mary got when Imus said, "why doesn't Cheney apologize for lying to us about WMD"? I thought she was gonna blow a gasket! Then Imus backed down some--that made me mad.

target practice :kick:

He puts the sack over his head.

so this idea of compartmentalizing rings hollow to me. Yeah, we can tolerate a relative here and there whose political ideology is completely opposite from our own. But marriage and daily life especially when such lives are SO defined by politics would be impossible unless one partner caved. My feeling watching the two together is sadly James yields.

I find Mary so completely and utterly obnoxious with no apparent redeeming qualities that, as my husband would say, she must have the golden ---- :spank:

I don't think they are really married. Probably stay together to get info on the other side. But lately she's really been fooling him good.

Not all Democrats view all Republicans as the enemy.

DTH

I've dated Republicans and I know and am friends with many Republicans, perfectly nice people, who geninunely believe that Bush is a good man and he's doing the right thing. My family is rather conservative, and I don't condemn them for believing what they do. Attempts to divide "good" and "evil" along partisan and ideological lines is just as bad as the moral absolutism that comes from the Bush Administration. Matalin is a Republican who leans libertarian, but is it becuase she supports Bush that she's a bad person? It's a sad state of affairs when we start seeing fellow human beings as a label rather than a person. I say, congratulations Mary and James, those two have proven that mutual love and friendship and bridge any gap, no matter how wide.

...opposites attract. I'm sure firey, angry debates can lead to serious passion for some. Call me a hopeless romantic, but I'd like to think that soulmates can find each other no matter, even if they're on different sides of the political spectrum.

:evilgrin:

I get a real hoot whenever Carville and Mary Matlin are on TV. I don't know them personally, but I know people who do. They really love each other.

PS - If anyone wants to see an example of "compartalization" they should have Thanksgiving dinner at my house. My grandfather (deceased) was an agnostic. My grandmother (deceased) was one of the first women elders in the Presbyterian Church. My husband and I are Democrats and Roman Catholic. My mother is a member of a non-denomination church. My one aunt is an atheist. Another aunt and her husband are Methodists. My uncle is a retired Air Force Major and a died-in-the-wool Republican. My brother is a member of just about every leftist organization known to mankind. I have a cousin who is an officer of the NJ Republican party. We always agree not to discuss politics but somehow it always gets around to that.

Believe it or not, we would all give our lives for each other. When my mother was on her deathbed in December (don't worry folks the doctors were wrong -- on December 27th they gave her a week to live!) I called my uncle and he and his wife drove straight through my Texas.