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Appearing on Tuesday's "Today" show, Republican strategist Mary Matalin slammed the media for its "hair-on-fire" coverage of Sarah Palin's selection as the Republican vice presidential nominee of John McCain. In particular, she corrected a previous segment by David Gregory which asserted that the Alaska governor had hired an attorney to defend herself against an ethics probe into possible attempts to dismiss a state trooper. Matalin asserted to host Matt Lauer that it wasn't true "that she's hired a lawyer to deal with this trooper issue. The attorney general, state attorney general hired the lawyer." She forcefully added, "That's what they...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Travis in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I'm glad you called, sir. Welcome. CALLER: Mega dittos, Rush. RUSH: Thank you, sir. CALLER: How are you? RUSH: Couldn't be better. CALLER: Great. RUSH: Actually, that's not true. If you want to know the truth I'm in a foul humor today. It's only my professionalism that makes you think I'm enjoying things today. CALLER: Well, maybe we can add a little more satire to your show now. RUSH: (Laughing.) Perhaps. CALLER: What I was calling for is I watched the David Gregory apology. RUSH: Yeah, that was on Meet the Depressed...

April 2 - During the presidential campaign, Mary Matalin helped craft Dick Cheney’s potent words. Now, her new Simon & Schuster imprint will give voice to the rest of the conservative crowd, starting with the vice president’s daughter. Matalin will publish a memoir by Mary Cheney, whose homosexuality became an issue in the election, next year. NEWSWEEK’s Susannah Meadows talked to Matalin, the Republican pundit and wife of fiery Democratic strategist James Carville, about her new role as editor. Excerpts:NEWSWEEK: What else do you hope to publish?Mary Matalin: My particular interest is in foreign policy and national security, stories like...

Mary Matalin to head publishing imprint NEW YORK - Mary Matalin, the Republican pundit and strategist also known as the wife/sparring partner of Democratic consultant James Carville, will run a new conservative publishing imprint at Simon & Schuster. "It's the absolute nexus of what I love to do," Matalin told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "I think we're on the threshold of a whole new way of looking at politics and policy and there's something vital about getting those ideas down in book form." The imprint, currently unnamed, is expected to release six to 10 books a year, beginning in...

A senior Bush administration advisor said Friday that John Kerry should apologize to Vice President Cheney and his wife Lynne for outing their daughter as "a lesbian" on national TV. "If he wants to get past [this controversy] as his campaign is saying he wants to, then he should just apologize and let's move on," Mary Matalin told NBC "Today Show" host Katie Couric. "[Kerry] was using Mary [Cheney] as a political football here," Matalin complained. "She's a behind the scenes person. She's not the poster girl for gay issues. She doesn't talk to the press. She's not public. ....

I posted this late Sunday night and I thought it might get more traffic today. Here is the original post. W 2004!!! With the new "dream team" of Carville and Begala in place, I thought it worthy of posting Carville's utter throwing away of Zell and his blaming Republicans for making Zell turn on his Dem buddies. Key points: Zell Miller was Carville's former employer and Miller officiated Carville and Matalins wedding!!! There is no bottom for Carville and this marks the beginning of the next phase in the battle for the White House. I wonder if Carl Rove forced...

September 6, 2004 -- WASHINGTON — The long knives are out for Democrat John Kerry's campaign manager, Mary Beth Cahill, as infighting rages while his slumping campaign struggles to come back against President Bush. "You'd think they could find a man to throw overboard one of these days," zinged Republican strategist Mary Matalin, a former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney on NBC's "Meet the Press." She said Democrats blamed 1988 loser Michael Dukakis' stumbles on campaign manager Susan Estrich and Al Gore's 2000 fumbles on campaign chief Donna Brazile, and "now they're trying to blame poor Mary Beth Cahill"...

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...

WASHINGTON, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh is expected to visit Afghanistan with the top U.S. aid official to spotlight America's aid work there, officials said on Thursday. Political commentator Mary Matalin, a former White House aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, will also be on the trip. She said she was not being paid to go and would pay her own way to Dubai but she believed the U.S. government would cover the cost of her visit to Afghanistan from there. The Bush administration has come under sharp criticism for the Education Department's...

ARLINGTON -- Bush-Cheney '04 today announced the members of its Debate Negotiations Team.  The team, lead by James A. Baker, III, will represent Bush-Cheney '04 in negotiations of the terms of the presidential debates between President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry and between Vice President Dick Cheney and Senator John Edwards.     "We are honored that Secretary Baker will lead negotiations on behalf of our campaign.  I am confident that he and the other seasoned members of our team will conduct negotiations in a thoughtful manner to ensure a robust debate of the critical issues facing our country," said...

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.

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...

Half-baked Barbara By John McCaslin October 7, 2005 It's not easy being the master of ceremonies for a roast when half of the roasters don't show up. Ask political commentator Mark Shields, who found himself in that uncomfortable position Wednesday evening as the Spina Bifida Association attempted to put TV personality Barbara Walters in the "hot seat" at the Hyatt Regency Washington. "This is more like a bake-off," a visibly embarrassed Mrs. Walters said after the roasting, expressing disappointment that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and fellow roaster Sen. Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana were no-shows. As it...