Less than one hour ago Paul Begala posted this on Huff Po...

05.19.2006
Bringing a Knife to a Gunfight


Zack Exley makes several good points. In fact, his post was a good deal more thoughtful than my offhand comment insulting Democratic party organizers. So let me respond in kind.

First, I should never, ever have denigrated young men and women who are working in the political trenches in places like Mississippi and Utah. I was being arrogant and flippant when I said they're just picking their noses. Mea culpa. You live by the smart-ass quip, you die by the smart-ass quip.

snip

For months I have been traveling the country -- free of charge -- raising money for Democrats who have the guts to take on Republican incumbents. I've been in Nevada and New Hampshire, in Ohio and Florida, in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, and more – all campaigning for Democratic challengers. These men and women are risking their reputations, their careers, their financial security -- and they're about to get hit with the most vicious negative ad campaign we've ever seen. If you think Karl Rove is going to surrender power without a fight, you're wrong. And if you think we can answer a last-minute mass media blitz with field organizers you're delusional. That's bringing a knife to a gunfight.

snip

What should our message be? Carville and I have already weighed in with a 349-page book that comes down to two words: Progressive Patriotism. No doubt others can improve on that. But that is what we should be arguing about. And I regret that my smart-ass comment once again sidetracked us from the discussion we ought to be having.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-begala/bringing-a-knife-to-a-gun_b_21275.html

what a bunch of crap...

The person getting in the way of a Democratic Party message is his darling Hillary.

The grassroots message, the message the entire country wants to hear, is that this country belongs to us and those people in Washington are OUR servants and not the other way around.

I can't believe I ever thought well of Carville and Begala, what complete disappointments they are.

it makes your head spin (at 1:56 in the morning when you can't sleep).

on edit - it's "desktop campaign manager wannabees"

More nationalism, if that is what they mean, is the wrong way to go. It is too Bushish/Roveish. The country doesn't want more of the same. I like your plan better and think we should attack their propaganda and call it for what it usually is, "moral panic." That is what they use to attack gays, abortion, the poor, the needy, and all them liberals in general who "don't have a moral compass and will destroy the country."

Everything is going to destroy the county except for them, and they are the ones destroying the country!

Simple as that. All we need is one or two strong points that symbolize (frame, as they call it) how liberals will rebuild their destruction and make the country stronger. ONLY one or two important points. One would be a plan to end the conflict in the Middle East (yeah, asking a lot, but there has to be a plan, and I really think Gore might be able to pull that off.) And another social issue, maybe schools and health care, or better yet, given the current times, kicking the oil habit. Bush is very weak there.

The point is, the message has to be true and simple and driven home ALL THE TIME!

How many slogans can you think of that the Right uses? That's because they repeat them so often and they know "If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes truth."

That really worked for them, so it should work for the real truth and real plans.

Great presidents build bridges, dictators build walls.

my bro in the Air Force sent me from Thailand, and as a metaphor let me say that I think I'm still good enough to beat a gun if they don't KNOW all you have is a knife :)

You can sometimes throw a knife faster than they can aim the gun, you just have to be ruthless, never hesitate and go for the throat.

So go to hell Paul G..

I watched him hustle Novak onto the CNN Bush in New Hampshire right after Novak had assaulted a guy standing next to me.. I caught the guy, and Novak had shoved him, then pulled back his arm and made a fist, with an insane face (and I've worked in two mental institutions) - the man had been calling Novak a traitor as they did their show in a restaurant, Crossfire during the Primaries, and had said it again out side as they were leaving..

Like I said, Begala grabbed Novak and shoved him Onto the CNN bus, saved him, because the crowd, after realising what had happened got really unruly.. as I pounded on the door of the bus and demanded that Novak come out and apologise to this man, I noticed Begala slipping out of the back of the bus, sliding around the front, behind the crowd and past the building..

We filed charges of assault against Novak that night.

Later Bow Tie boy came out and everyone was nuts, screaming at him about what Novak had done, and Bow Tie Boy starte wagging his little fake Beatle cut hair around, and saying, "Oh wow, so what.. like a 70 year old man SHOVED you? Big deal!" It was a big deal, the coldest winter in recorded history, ice everywhere and very slick, the guy could have been hurt, I caught him, but I have a bad back and didn't appreciate it.. SO I got close to Tucker Carlson, and said to him, "Well then, how about *I* SHOVE YOU and see if it's no big deal?"

He got a panicky look in his eyes and tried talking to some other people and getting lost in the crowd, I let him go, but saw the fear, good enough for me since we were going to go rat out Novak to the cops anyway..

Take it for what it's worth.. if we get INVOLVED we can WIN.

for the Democratic party in general. I saw Paul do an interview with Leslie "The Wolf" Blitzer not many months ago and he was absolutely embarrassing -- talking about taking his kid to shoot some poor defenseless animals for "fun" -- I'm sure trying to be a real "hunter" like the Dick, seems repugs are so impressed by guns, bibles and gays. Let me hear somebody talking truth and a reasonable way out of this mess we've found ourselves in. I'm old and not well, and do hope I get to see this regime swinging from the gallows before I depart.

Asshole

and then knocking them down.

While you raise some important issues, you ignore the disconnect in the Democratic Party.

The overwhelming majority of rank and file Democrats oppose the Iraq War. Many of our Congressional "leaders", including Hillary Clinton, support it. That takes the most important moral issue of our time off the table.

Most Democrats bitterly oppose Bush's attempts to gut the Constitution. The Democratic leadership has dithered and whimpered and stuck wet fingers in the air while staying carefully apart from the few brave souls among them who have spoken up against warrentless wiretaps and rubber stamp justices. Another issue shot to hell.

Most Democrats want the crooks and lobbyists out of our government (so do most rank and file Republicans by the way). Our leaders cut the floor out from under Barak Obama when he had the temerity to suggest that Congressmen & Senators should (gasp) fly commercial aircraft instead of taking corporate subsidized junkets to their fundraisers. Democrats fly corporate jets too. Another issue out the door. We haven't heard much about corruption and lobbying reform from the Democrats lately, have we?

If what you say about the DNC finances is true, Chairman Dean may have some explaining to do, but don't blame Howard Dean for the lack of a coherent Democratic message, Paul.

If the Democrats don't have a message it's because too many of them are either afraid to say what they actually think or they, in their hearts support the policies that most rank and file Democrats bitterly oppose.

If this keeps up we're headed for another of electoral debacles that the Democratic consultant class seeems to specialize in providing.

Begala's hypocrisy is showing again. He and Carville have helped Hillary in raising $40 million to use in her "senate" run agains a phantom candidate. At the very least, $20 million belongs not in Hillary's coffers, but in the collective funds at the DNC and the accounts of candidates with real challenges around the country.

Ya know.... it Begala cares so much about the DNC funds, why doesn't he go out and raise some?

My red county now has a Dem. county office. We, the long forgotten of the Dem. party are soooo happy.

Bear with me, I was a liberal arts major. But it seems that leaves $45 million in expenditures. Perhaps fundraising costs have gone through the roof. That would be especially tragic given that part of the appeal of the Dean for DNC Chair campaign was his potential to raise money cleanly and cheaply through this newfangled Interwebnet thing.

So, where's the money gone? I have no idea. I do know that the Washington Post reports that salaries and consultants (Gasp! The dreaded C-Word) have gone through the roof at the DNC. Consultants' costs alone have increased from $1.7 million to $2.8 million. Could it be that the netroots' hero is actually bloating the DNC's Beltway bureaucracy?

We shouldn't be spending a dime in Utah and Mississippi.

By the time we ever won anything in those states, we'd have every other state in the union in our pocket.

Spending money for a decade (or more) from now is what we should do if we are in the majority. The Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches are in the hands of Rethugs. Until we have control over most of these branches, a dime spent in UT or MS is a dime wasted in achieving our mission - attack where the Rethugs are vulnerable. Win.

that led the national party to ignore every single state that's not a swing state. That doesn't work. People in those states need to be a part of the national dialog. We need to TRY to start winning over these states, even if it's only a little bit. Otherwise, we'll never win anything.

I wrote that a dime spent in UT or MS - whose electoral votes are meaningless - is wasted.

I didn't say "ignore every single state that's not a swing state."

Our priority should be to win. UT and MS (and ID) have NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with winning. I think it's Dean's ego - to spend money everywhere is his announced strategy - that wastes money that could be used in more important states and more important fights.

We have to acknowledge that the Rethugs control this country. Winning control of the branches of governement is far more important than 'making progress' in solid red states, IMO.

with other Democrats say 60% or so has a chance to win in a MS or UT district beating out a republican that is going to vote with Democrats 2% of the time the national party should say "no thanks?" I don't think this is the way to win the house back. States that are very red are not where the national focus should be pointed but the idea of not spending a dime in them is what hurts us. Gene Taylor is a good example of one of these people, he represents a district that by party demographics should be a solid red seat, the district has not voted Dem for president since the 1950's. One or two more conservative Democrat members of Congress is one or two more votes toward the majority.

The republicans handle this much better than we do, this is where "moderate republicans" come from, they represent districts that should be Democratic. The RNC finds and helps them. They don't run as many right wing fundies in as many place where they will get trounced as we run sacrificial lambs.

Although he should have gone more public, maybe even directly to the DNC or to the Utah campaign team.

When was the last time you ever heard a Republican apologize for thoughtless remarks?

Paul would never use his gun. He wouldn't fire it, because he might need the bullets later.

when he could have been running more ads in Ohio and NC (which had a chance of turning blue..if they had spent more time here).

Where were those great creative ads that could have been run in 2000 and 2004 that could have countered the Repug attack machine.

Begalla and Carvill now are part of the "Machine Politics." They sold out and that's what happens. We need the fresh faces with energy who have the fire in the belly to get the Bushies out. Young Turks to challenge the old Bulls.

really.. :sarcasm: Why they're so open-minded that they trash everyone that has criticism of our so-far-failed campaigning, instead of quietly reading it to see if there is a kernel of truth. In the five years I've been on DU I can't remember a period of time, as this past year, when the board degenerated into constant attacks on everyone that doesn't fit their personal belief of what it means to be a Democrat.

You guys have at it... trash Begala and Carville, trash Hillary, trash Ed Schultz. Enjoy Jeb Bush as president.. maybe we'll get lucky this time and the third Bush will be a charm. Because your constant attacks of anyone you deem not liberal enough, is like stabbing yourself in the foot with the knife you brought to the gunfight. Alienate and abuse the moderates and the republican swing voters at your peril; We cannot win without them!

It's that they trash Democrats at all levels every single chance they get. I may not wholly agree with their position on something, but I'm not ready to throw them by the wayside for it. Different views are a GOOD thing; the more the better!

But it's PUBLICLY trashing others within the Democratic Party that bugs the hell out of me.

of "our so-far-failed campaigning.""

Dear Paul Begala:

We need all of the support we can get and spoon feeding criticisms of the Party to the Cons is no longer acceptable. Sorry. Begala, Donna, Carville and the rest of them need to stop the public hit-jobs on Democrats and the Democratic Party. Every time I them they are doing this. Meanwhile, Karl Rove, Orrin Hatch, and Dave Dreier are silently cheering Praise the Lord! and taking notes. I'm sick of it!

Look...if you're going to do a dog and pony show, you praise your team and piss on your competition. If you can't do it, then don't sign up for the stage.

By the way, your 'charity' of traveling around "free of charge" says something to me. I'll give you credit for not 'charging', but it's curious that it's "free of charge" instead of "at my own expense". In fact, it's notable that this information is something you want to be part of the picture. But then to follow that up with "I have this book that you can pick up at Borders or Amazon.com..."

I agree we should be bringing a gun. Hell! It should be an overwhelming arsenal!!! While we're at it, we need some knife training for our spokespeople so we stop stabbing ourselves in the backs.

P-R-O-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E *sigh* I love that word. I feel like this country is slipping back into the DARK AGES.

Begala needs to go on NATIONAL TV and make this same statement. Shame on him from EVER uttering those words.:grr:

I read it twice, and I agree with the Kos poster and the night of the long knives diary. He is implying carelessness and/or misuse or something. May be trying to hurt fundraising. He apologizes only for being rude about the grassroots.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/5/19/85623/6162