James Carville Quote Page This Generation's Truman

People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for freedom of thought which they never use. Kierkegaard The golden rule is that there are no golden rules George Bernard Shaw You should never have your best trousers on when you turn out to fight for freedom and truth Henrik Ibsen, 1882

2000 Election Back in 2000 a Republican friend warned me that if I voted for Al Gore and he won, the stock market would tank, we'd lose millions of jobs, and our military would be totally overstretched. You know what? I did vote for Gore, he did win, and I'll be damned if all those things didn't come true! James Carville Source:Fighting Back

America We are told America is best when people are interested in ourselves. We know America is better when we're based on a common interest. James Carville Source:workingforchange.com Appointing Judges And President Clinton was elected. You see, he was elected. And so, when you have the moral authority of an election, you ought to be able to control the federal judiciary. They don't have that. James Carville Bond Market I used to think if there was reincarnation, I wanted to come back as the president or the Pope or a .400 baseball hitter. But now I want to come back as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody. James Carville Source:http://www.nebusiness.co.uk/business-news/business-comment/2011/11/21 /why-sovereign-debt-hits-us-all-51140-29810248/ Bush Jr. "I'll say something nice about Bush: He is the greatest civics teacher in the history of the United States. He has single-handedly taken voter apathy and turned it right on its head." James Carville source:delcotimes.com You know what Bush needs? A calculator! Look at the fiscal health of the U.S., They inherited a $5.6 trillion surplus and plunged the nation into debt. Average Americans will be paying for the Bush tax cut for decades with higher taxes, That is taxation without representation. That is the antithesis of everything that is most American. In the Clinton administration we worried the president would open his zipper. In the Bush administration, they worry the president will open his mouth The Bush budget, with all the lies in it and wrapped in a flag, that is flag desecration. I'm kind of unimpressed with the argument that an unelected president has the right to have people in the Cabinet who always agree with his philosophy. People rejected that philosophy at the polls. We'll never raise as much money as Bush is going to raise and his corporate lobbyists, I can promise you, because he has paid them back in spades. The public in this poll and other polls shows an appetite, they want to address other problems. The danger is, if they see Democrats absent from this discussion , then they will assume the party is not really for something. The danger is not so much that you risk being against Bush. The danger is you run the risk of not being for something. That is the real danger. We are saying be positive, be for something ... And it is fine to be for something different than Bush is for. ... that's exactly what happened in the 80s. They have this tax cut and the coffers were just overflowing. Didn't we run $3 trillion in debt that the Democrats had to come clean up? Using this war on terrorism as an excuse for these budget deficits I think is one of the most fraudulent things in American politics ... No, sir. Let me tell you exactly this : President Bush got 68 percent more money than every Democrat in the Congress combined. And this ludicrous idea, Oh, they both got it, no, it was 73 to 27. If you lose the game 73 to 27, that is not a tie."

Bill Clinton The country will owe many debts of gratitude to Bill Clinton: for balancing the budget; leading a booming economy after inheriting an economic disaster; making significant progress in peace around the world from Northern Ireland to the Middle East; Kosovo; expanding family and medical leave. But the Establishment doesn't seem to be concerned with things like that. When it's all said and done, it is the law of the playground that applies. You mess with my friend, I'm coming after you. You know what? I love him. [Bill Clinton] I mean, they're not bad people, but what I really care about is that a woman who cleans bedpans in a hospital has health insurance, or has a better life. Now if that's what I care about, I gotta be a Clinton person. But one of Clinton's problems was, the interest groups don't care about the working poor. The Republicans don't care about the working poor -- they don't know any. The Op-Ed writers don't care about the working poor. The editorial writers don't care about the working poor. The talking heads don't care about the working poor. Listen to what I am saying. Over 75 years, the amount the new tax cuts (those not yet in force) will cost exceeds the projected Social Security deficit. I don't know how I can say it any clearer. I equate [a Clinton tirade] to an afternoon thunderstorm. There's a lot of thunder and lightning and then it's gone and the sun is shining again.

Coalitions It's worth remembering that the dislike and distrust the world now feels toward American didn't just happen. It was the result of a concerted effort by this (Bush) administration to piss off everyone in the world on just about every issue. Heck, if George Bush could build coalitions half as well as he burns bridges, we wouldn't be in this mess to begin with. James Carville Source:Had Enough?

Difference What's the real difference between Republicans and Democrats?.. Let me tell ya the real difference ... Republicans will always take on people in the interest of power and good democrats will never fear to take on the power in the interests of people. Dole and His Wife She quit to volunteer over there and some Republicans said, 'Well, if she works for Dole, she will tell her husband all the secrets.' And the Dole people fired her.... And I said, 'You know, Dole's getting 35 percent of the women's vote and he acts like he wants 15 percent.' You can't fire a woman because of who she's married to. You ever see how good looking my wife is and how ugly I am? Who do you think is going to be giving the secrets up, me or her? Fox Network Republicans now have their own network in Fox, so guys who don't like to answer questions, like Trent Lott, have a place to go to hit softballs. Jerry Falwell I wouldn't piss down that son of a bitch's throat if his heart was on fire. Human Nature This is a very human feeling--The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Idiot An Idiot's just an idiot.

Iraq "If you can't say the simple fact that they lied to get us in and have no idea how to get us out, then there's something wrong with America."

"In '44, Franklin Delano Roosevelt had a 700-page plan for the occupation of Japan. That's what happens when you think ahead. What was the plan this time? Who read the important documents? Let's have an investigation. If we can spend $70 million to investigate the act of consensual sex, we can spend a few million to find out why we are involved in a war in Iraq."

Limbaugh Nightmare "I look out here, I see white folks. I see black folks. I see Latino folks. I see straight folks. I see gay folks. I see a Rush Limbaugh nightmare. James Carville Source:Philadelphia Weekly Morality and Hypocrisy My experience had been that the people who talk the loudest about morality are the people who possess the least amount of it. Am I mad about Newt Gingrich talking about the destruction of values and leaving his wife for a so-call choirgirl? Well, no, because to get mad at Republican hypocrisy is the same as getting mad at the air. It's just there, what can you do about it? Political Base Whenever I hear a campaign talk about a need to energize the base, that's a campaign that's going down the toilet. It's a pretty good indication that they're not eating up any territory, they can't get anybody in the center to support them, they're getting shelled back into their own bunker. James Carville Source:nationalreview.com Politics When your opponent is drowning, throw the son of a bitch an anvil. James Carville Source:spicyquotes.com Ralph Nadar I think Ralph Nader is the biggest liar in American politics when he said it didn't matter who was president. James Carville Source:BQ Republican Primary Voters "the problem is what I call the Lester Maddox problem. [Former Georgia governor] Lester Maddox famously said the problem with the Georgia prisons is the quality of the inmate. The problem with the Republican party is the quality of the person who votes in primaries. 59% of them say the party is not conservative enough. James Carville Source:http://newsbusters.org/blogs/mark-finkelstein/2013/09/24/carville- likens-gop-primary-voters-low-quality-jailbirds#ixzz2fuXq02yY Republicans They're just ultra-conservatives soaked in big oil money. A good Republican is one who doesn't want anybody to know it. I promise you, if Republicans take my advice and continue to believe it's their leaders, not their ideas, that are at the heart of their party's troubles, they won't have to worry about fighting each other for the House Speakership in 1998. It'll be the Democrats who will have that honor. As long as the Republicans keep serving up the same worthless ideas, the American people won't care who's running the GOP. Everybody here is in massive denial that they have anything to do with politics. It's almost like to be here, to be a Republican, is to deny you are a Republican. You know, it's a problem, if they focus on Clinton's accomplishments, it'll have to be a 10-year course because when they stack them all up, they won't ... Smaller Government Rebublicans want smaller government for the same reason crooks want fewer cops: it's easier to get away with murder. James Carville Source:Had Enough? Ken Starr As with mosquitoes, horseflies and most bloodsucking parasites, Kenneth Starr was spawned in stagnant water. You know something? I don't like Ken Starr. I don't like one damn thing about him. I don't like his politics. I don't like his sanctimony. I don't like his self-pity. I don't like the people he runs with. I don't like his suck-up, spit-down view of the world, how he kisses up to the powerful and abuses the life out of regular people. I don't like his private legal clients. I don't like the folks who work for him -- or the people who apologize for him, either. I don't like the way he always smiles at the wrong time. (I never trust a person a smile doesn't come naturally to.) I don't like the way he always compares himself -- favorably, of course -- to cherished American icons. And I absolutely won't stand for the way he has single-handedly demeaned the Constitution of our great nation. No American should. Now, don't get me wrong. I don't hate the guy. I don't wish him personal ill. I just flat out do not like him. I think he's an abusive, privacy-invading, sex-obsessed, right-wing, constitutionally insensitive, boring, obsequious, and miserable little man who has risen further in his life by his willingness to suck up to power than his meager talents and pitiful judgment ever would have gotten him. "Can Ken Starr ignore the apparent breadth of the sympathetic response to the president's speech? Facially, it finally dawned on me that the person Ken Starr has reminded me of facially all this time was Heinrich Himmler, including the glasses. If he now pursues the president of the United States, who, however flawed his apology was, came out and invoked God, family, his daughter, a political conspiracy and everything but the kitchen sink, would not there be some sort of comparison to a persecutor as opposed to a prosecutor for Mr. Starr?" James Carville Source:http://www.probe.org/docs/c-starr2.html Rick Perry “Rick Perry is the worst presidential campaign, candidate in American history. “Who is worse? He was on fire. He was on fire for a while. There’s nobody that had worse debates than he did. There was nobody that raised more money to less effect. Not Giuliani, not Fred Thompson, not John Connally, not anybody — given the expectations of where he started… I’m sorry, he was the worst ever. Source:http://www.mediaite.com/tv/james-carville-rick-perry-is-the-worst- presidential-candidate-in-american-history/ Stand For Something What I'm suggesting is, stand for yourself, be for something and the hell with it. Because the hand-wringers and the editorialists and the sigh-and-pontificate crowd will be against you, whatever you do. But look, if Tom DeLay was a Democrat, we would control the House Supreme Court Thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court, you'll be able to use public money to send yours kids to General Beauregard Bigot Private Academy, Fundamentalist Football, and Frequent Drug Tests. They have these religious schools that teach these kids insanity like the earth is 5,000 years old, where the pope is a demon. I don't want my tax money going to that kind of crap. You can practice religion until you fall out. I don't want to pay for somebody else's bigotry. We're not going to steal this. We're going to win this. And we're going to win this by more than 5 votes. Tea Partiers "Tea Partiers think clean water tramples on their constitutional right to be poisoned." James Carville Source:http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/dim-bulb/2012/01/dim- bulb-democratic-political-strategist-james-carville/2081506 Voting for Romney 'It's Like You're Trying to Give Your Dog a Pill. They Keep Spitting it Up' James Carville Source:http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/carville-republicans-voting-romney-its-you Wanting to Be President For politicians, running for president is rather like having sex for normal people: it is not something that you do just once if you have any say in the matter. James Carville Source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Editorial /An_inconvenient_truth_for_Hillary/articleshow/1755570.cms Winner & Loser You show me a winner and I'll show you someone who's lost a lot, You show me someone who's never lost and you show me a loser - someone who's never tried. The more a person wants to succeed in life and the bigger they dream, the more likely they are to fail. James Carville Source:http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite ?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_BasicArticle&c= MGArticle&cid=1031780635287&path=!localnews! localgov&s=1037645509123

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