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A month ago, after Vice President Dick Cheney caused a stir when he told Sen. Pat Leahy to "f--- yourself," White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett advised the Cheney team to "just make a joke of it," a senior White House official tells Newsweek. But Cheney did not. Rather, the veep affirmed to Fox News that he had told off Leahy and "felt better afterwards." Mary Matalin, the former White House aide who acts as an informal media and political adviser for the Cheneys tells Newsweek that she doubts Cheney had ever heard the White House official's advice. "I know...

Anyone else listening to this interview on MSNBC? Mary has Imus apoligizing, agreeing, capitulating... etc.

SARASOTA -- Democratic consultant James Carville was asked Wednesday if he lost any business when he married Republican strategist Mary Matalin."The only thing I lost when I got married was my ability to make decisions," Carville quipped. Carville and Matalin exchanged more light-hearted banter than pointed political opinions in a joint appearance at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall. Those expecting a Lincoln-Douglas-style debate got something closer to George Burns and Gracie Allen instead. Matalin maintained at one point that she didn't read the book her husband wrote, nor did she "read his half of the book we wrote together."...

With Los Angeles private eye Anthony Pellicano beginning his jail sentence on Monday, Hollywood is on pins and needles wondering about the Pellicano tapes, illegal wiretap transcripts discovered on the celebrity gumshoe's computer while he was under investigation for a witness intimidation rap. But those aren't the only recordings that document the work of the man known as the "investigator to the stars." In 1992, when "the Pelican" hired on to do damage control for Bill Clinton's presidential campaign, Mary Matalin, then the political director for President Bush 41's reelection campaign, found herself in the unenviable position of being sought...

What's more interesting: Arnold Schwarzenegger running for governor of California, or the phalanx of sycophants advising him, while looking for their own piece of the political action? If it's the latter that fascinates you, check out HBO's upcoming K Street, a 10-week series due Sept. 14 from George Clooney and director Steven Soderbergh. Washington power couple James Carville and Mary Matalin play versions of themselves in the series, which mixes real-life political figures with actors improvising roles as fictional lobbyists. K Street aims to portray the cynicism and idealism involved in Washington lawmaking machinery, but promises to take no ideological...

MARY NEXT: MATALIN MAY LEAVE WHITE HOUSE POST BY END OF YEAR Fri Apr 26 2002 16:24:09 ET In the second big blow to President Bush's staff this week, a senior White House official tells Ed Henry at ROLL CALL DAILY that top aide Mary Matalin may leave her job by the end of the year. MORE Matalin tells Henry that she has made no decision on the matter, but said that "no one ever thought I would stay for the whole term." Matalin acknowledged that during a private lunch with outgoing Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift (R) on Thursday,...

<p>Whatever its artistic or commercial merits, and they're paltry, there's no questioning K Street's ( * 1/2, 10 ET/PT)lofty aims. Produced by George Clooney and film director Steven Soderbergh, this largely improvised half-hour mixes actors, politicians and spin doctors to tell the story of a mythical political consulting firm run by the all-too-real James Carville and Mary Matalin.</p>

HBO Networks is about to drop on us its newest series, a political drama which has the working title 'K Street.' That is K Street as in the Washington DC throughfare where the political consultants have their offices.Slated for 10 shows, the thing start shooting as we speak. Those who gave it the papal blessing think it is so fall down brilliant it was greenlighted without a pilot.And why is it so supposedly great? Because its great masterminds, the ones who concieved and created it, where such greats as George Clooney and Steven Soderburgh. It's about political consulting. Consulting for...

Brit Hume was in his morning staff meeting at Fox News yesterday when his cell phone rang. It was Dick Cheney. The network's Washington managing editor had been pressing for the interview that every news organization was hotly pursuing, and now the vice president was saying that he would talk to Hume -- and only Hume -- about the hunting accident that has put him at the center of a fierce Beltway storm. In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, Vice President Cheney discusses his accidental shooting of friend Harry Whittington for the first time. "I felt the need...

"....Matalin, who served as a top political advisor to both presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, said she believes the favorite to win the GOP presidential nomination is Sen. Ted Crus (R-Tex), whom she said appeals to conservatives of all stripes. 'My money right now is on Ted Cruz,' she said. 'Again, I'm unaligned, but I think he speaks to the myriad factions of conservatism: Constitutionalists, Libertarians, the social conservatives.' 'I think he's whip-smart, as evidenced by his debate appearances, and he's a true, true, true constitutionalist, and everything's lining up for him,' she added. Matalin said the...

Former Bush family advisor Mary Matalin says she was “flummoxed” by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s performance at Wednesday’s GOP presidential debate. The veteran GOP strategist said Bush’s decision to go after Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) for missing votes in the Senate was an example of “political malfeasance.” “I love Jeb and I know Jeb, and I’m flummoxed by that,” she told host John Catsimatidis on “The Cats Roundtable” on New York’s AM-970, in an interview set to be aired Sunday. “It’s a violation of debate 101: Never ask an opponent or never address to an opponent something you know...

GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump has an electable message, but is dead wrong on calling rival Jeb Bush "low energy," says Mary Matalin, a longtime political adviser to the Bush family. "Donald Trump can say whatever he wants to say about Jeb, but saying that he’s low-energy is wrong because the guy is an Energizer Bunny," Matalin said Sunday on "The Cats Roundtable" on AM 970 in New York. Bush has a record as a conservative governor in Florida that is often overlooked by people who compare him to his father, former President George H.W. Bush, and his brother, former...

There was a really delicious exchange on ABC’s This Week Sunday that conservatives across the fruited plain will greatly enjoy. After hate-spewing MSNBC contributor Michael Eric Dyson bashed former Vice President Dick Cheney for once wanting Nelson Mandela put on a terrorist list, Matalin shot back, “When will you ever get tired of beating up on Darth Vader” (video follows with transcript and commentary): Mary Matalin Smacks Down MSNBC’s Dyson: ‘Will You Ever Get Tired of Beating Up On Darth Vader? MICHAEL ERIC DYSON, MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR: I'm the same generation as President Obama, and taking a stand against apartheid both...

Yes and no. Yes, as in, it is possible, and no, as in, it’s not normal in the soul sense. Of course, one immediately thinks of famous, mysteriously married, bi-partisan power-couples such as top republican consultant Mary Matalin and top democrat strategist James Carville. They’ve been happily wedded for twenty years. Amazingly, they actually met (in 1991) while each was about to be hired to manage opposing presidential campaigns; Matalin for George H. W. Bush, and Carville for Bill Clinton. They claim publicly that they don’t talk politics at home. When they appear on TV together, it’s actually pretty amusing...

On Fox News Sunday, Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol cautioned against conflating the various Obama scandals with the new revelations of NSA surveillance. "Conservatives and Republicans are making a huge mistake," Kristol predicted.

KRUGMAN: That kills charitable deductions. It hits the middle class hard. If you do it -- if you do it right -- we've done this, right... MATALIN: Are you an economist or a polemicist? (CROSSTALK) KRUGMAN: There's only -- there's only $450 billion that you can get by doing that. MATALIN: Do you want to talk about economy or do you want to talk about polemics? KRUGMAN: No, this is not true. MATALIN: We have two different ways of going forward. We will not have Medicare, we will not have Social Security. You have senior Democrat Dick Durbin saying Social...

For all of you political junkies who have not seen the Carville And Matalin Mitsubishi commercials here they are. These commercials are hilarious.

AND NOW . . . amidst billowing clouds of fragrant, aromatic first- and second-hand premium cigar smoke. . . it is time for . . . that harmless, lovable little fuzz ball, the highly-trained broadcast specialist, having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have, from behind the golden EIB microphone, firmly ensconced in the prestigious Attila-the-Hun chair at the Limbaugh Institute of Advanced Conservative Studies, serving humanity simply by showing up, and he’s not retiring until every American agrees with him, do NOT doubt him, with shrieks of joy at the mere mention of his name...

FREEPER COMMENTS REQUESTED: Is it just me, or is Mary Matalin way off base today with her entire theme for the show (guest hosting for Rush). Now I normally like her work tremendously, but her idea that we should search for "virtue" in government and for "virtuous people" to be in government seems extremely naive. The only virtue in government is its limit. We will never get a government full of virtuous people. By definition, government is power and virtuous people are not drawn to that. Our Founders knew that. This is why they insisted on LIMITED government. Wake up...

The former executive director for the American Conservative Union has agreed to serve on the advisory council for GOProud, a homosexual lobby that has approved of same-sex "marriage" and the repeal of the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy that allowed homosexuals to serve in the military if they didn't make an issue of their lifestyle choice even though the law banned that. According to an announcement today from GOProud, Chuck Muth, the former executive director of the ACU, is joining the GOProud leadership team. Christopher Barron, chairman of GOProud's board, said in a prepared statement the organization was honored to...