YouSaid · the spoken record

Paul Begala

lines on the record

109

first

2016-07-04

most recent

2016-07-04

sittings or episodes

1

sources

podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

1. “Yes, please Okay, well, turn the volume down if the kids are in the car. God damn it, Harris. I can't fucking spend ideas. I need money.”

   2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

2. “Boy, did that work. And at one point he called me up. I was just turning 30, and I was a campaign manager. So I was really under a lot of stress. And Harris was a great guy, but like any good person hated raising money. So I rode him like a barred mule. Gotta raise money. So he went to a fundraiser. And he called me up. How'd it go, Harris? What you got? And he said, well, not much money, but some really good ideas. Can I swear on this?”

   2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

3. “Could have been 46 But you do the battery of issues. This was so instructive. And it was jobs, economy, unemployment. Everything was clustered around. There was session that was pretty hard in Pennsylvania. And toward the bottom at 3% healthcare is an open-ended question. 3% healthcare. And Donald and I talked to Wofford about it. Wafford at the time was Casey's Secretary of Labor and Industry, dealing with all of these factory closings. And Wofford said, you know, the truth is the jobs problem is really a healthcare problem. It's like all of these plants, all of these guys, they're having a such a hard time meeting their healthcare costs. This was steel and mining and, you know, the great industries that built Pennsylvania said their real problem is health care costs. So the truth is, if you want to do something about jobs, you got to do something about healthcare.”

   2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

4. “So he and King became very close at the very beginning of King's public career as a civil rights activist. He was very close to Dr. King and helped write many of his speeches and books. Then he transitioned and worked for President Kennedy through Sarge Shriver, who was a great mentor of Harris's. So he represented kind of the greatest of democratic liberalism. And Casey appointed him to the Senate, and we also had a secret weapon, Mike Donalin, was our pollster. Mike wound up being a key advisor to Vice President Biden. I know you work closely with him.”

   2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

5. “In a plane crash? Just the most beloved person in Pennsylvania politics by both sides of the aisle. And that was just horrible. So my client, Governor Casey, was tasked by state constitution to select an interim senator. And he thought hard about it. He looked, as I recall General Kelly from the Gulf War. I think he thought, he actually thought about Rich Trumpka at one point, thought about Leiaco, but settled on Harris, who was a friend of his. Harris had Worked for Martin Luther King. Harris wrote a Larview article in the fifties that suggested that the civil rights movement should adopt Gandhi's tactics of nonviolent social change. He had been 19 years old. He had gone to India and written a book about Gandhi just after Gandhi was killed.”

   2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

6. “She called me up like an older sister and said, just set the politics aside. I'm totally with you. And she maintained a relationship and a friendship with Zell. It didn't really reflect in Zell's votes. He voted with Bush almost all the time. But it was just a human thing. And today's Zell and I are really close again. And so was James, by the way. He's gone to visit him. The governor's had some health concerns. And it was a real blessing, that advice, that no matter what your political differences is, This is somebody who I love and who I have real history with. He introduced me to Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton would have never hired Carvalho and me if I had him in for Zell Miller. And on top of that, he just personally been such an important part of my life. And I'm really glad that I didn't give in to those kind of more angry impulses.”

   2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

7. “He did. And it really strained our friendship to say the least. Carville publicly broke with him and had donated Azell's campaign, publicly said I want my money back. It was just a bitter, bitter break. And I'd say I was thinking about doing the same. And this guy, I mean, he called me his third son. I mean, I'm really close to him. And I was thinking about doing that. And I got a call from someone who said, look, you need to never do that, never publicly attack this man. I said, why? And the person said, because the chances are really good that you'll outlive him and you don't want that on your conscience. This guy's been too important in your life. That person was Hillary Clinton.”

   2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

8. “That's what the founders wanted. They wanted them to deliberate and to talk. But if you're an action-oriented person, the way the president is, the way Zelle is, the Senate can be very difficult. And he just hated it.”

   2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

9. “I remember him saying, you know, God, that would be the job of a life, but I promise, surely, that we'd stay in the mountains of Georgia and not go off on another political adventure. And he just hated it, hated the Senate. You know”

   2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

10. “The best. No, I'm serious, but it's a statement about what it is to be a Democrat. And then what happened, I think, I do, and I think his governor record as populist, progressive is unmatched in Georgia history. And he got to the Senate. He just hated it. He got there accidentally and tragically. He was pretty close to Paul Coverdale, the senator who died tragically. The Democratic governor at the time of Roy Barnes really urged him because Miller had retired as governor, the most popular figure in the state, begged him to take it. And Zell didn't want to do it. I remember talking to him. In between that, by the way, I was working in the White House. President Clinton had me call Zell and offer him Secretary of the Navy. Zell was an old Marine. He would have been great at it.”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

11. “He gave the keynote address for Bill Clinton in 1992 convention, which is still one of the great speeches about what it is to be a Democrat. I'm serious. It ranks up there with Mario Cuomo and Barbara Jordan. It is worth people getting out.”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

12. “To enhance the rest of the life, the only state that did it right because it's locked into their constitution. It can't be spent on other things. Some of it went to pre k, actually. There's two things you did. So he got him at the front end.”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

13. “The Senate, but by far the best governor of Georgia ever produced. Really remarkable. He transformed his state. He created a state lottery, which many states did in the 80s. But he understood power better than any of the rest of them. I mean it in a way like that the founding fathers did. So he locked in all that lottery revenue not to supplement or supplant existing revenue, but to create a new program, the Hope Scholarship. To this day, over 90% of the kids at the University of Georgia are going free. They're going for free. If you maintain a B average, so there's standards. You maintain a B average, you go to college tuition-free, and if you're higher, you can get books free, even room and board free. It has transformed their state and kept the smartest kids. The lottery money is actually...”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

14. “My very first state Senate race. I was still in college. And Doggit was up for reelection. So this is 81. I'm a kid. And I was like, you know, the really lowest ranking kind of intern going to get coffee and sandwiches. And the worst thing that could happen happened. Our opponent dropped out of the race. And of course, doggit was jumping around dancing. The campaign manager, a guy named Russ Tidwell, who is still my friend. I still call him boss. And Boss Tidwell, he sees me in the corner fighting back tears. He said, what's the matter? I said, this is the only job I could ever get. I'm through. And he said, he said it. I remember he said, as long as you can walk and chew gum, you can find work in politics, kid. I never forgot that.”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

15. “And Karen Ollich, who's one of the top media consultants, was our deputy campaign manager. I was the press secretary. My deputy press secretaries, a woman named Debbie Sack, who's with Columbia University now, a top executive at Columbia, and Neil McBride. Went on to serve Joe Biden for years in the Senate and then was our U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia prosecutor. It's a pretty talented group.”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

16. “But I never forgot that. He took me in, I was literally broke. And then he got me a job as Lautenberg's press secretary. Frank was up for re-election, tough race. I had no job and no money. And in fact, had to borrow money from my then girlfriend to stay afloat and to keep Carville and Magala afloat. So Diane Friday, now Diane Begala, went and borrowed, she had a real job. She borrowed $5,000, a lot of money in the 80s. And I realized now as I was talking about, I've never paid her back. So 28 or whatever years of marriage later, she asked me to ask you, by the way, when...”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

17. “Yeah, it became a legendary. Back then, it just needed fumigation. And I slept on a sofa, which wasn't bad. You had to wrap yourself in saran wrap. Did you have to?”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

18. “I was evicted from my apartment on Capitol Hill because Dick didn't pay us for four months. And Carvel took me in. He had one bedroom apartment, tiniest little hovel, and yet he took me in, let me sleep. Was this a face?”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

19. “Right. And that kind of authenticity, it's why it's maybe the best shorthand of a campaign ever when you said it's an MRI of the soul. Dick has a very good soul. But we did something that was really at odds with what we were running on. And quite rightly, we got spanked for it.”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

20. “Right, and that's an important thing in politics, right? Is what Shakespeare says to thy own self be true? That was not true to Dick's message. And so, quite rightly, we got hammered for that. I was just speed trudder. I didn't organize it.”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

21. “But then at the close of Iowa, his campaign organized a chartered jet full of lobbyists who flew to Iowa to campaign for him and Paul Simon quite rightly destroyed us on that. Like you can't be the outsider candidate.”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

22. “He'd been a governor, but he didn't, you know, unforced errors often kill you in these things. Dick had decided he was the majority leader, not yet. He was the caucus chair. So he's like the fourth highest guy in the house. Had been a really gifted inside player. But authentically was concerned about especially trade and which was”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

23. “Who if you had had one more week, you'd have want Iow He was charging at the end And he got it. He just projected. He was. He was very authentic. Just a great guy. And you guys would have beat us if you had one more week.”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

24. “Very helpful. Then actually, we split up. James went off to work in New Jersey for Frank Lautenberg. I signed on with Dick Gephardt, presidential campaign.”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

25. “Who became governor of Kentucky, defeated John Y. Brown, the Kentucky Fried Chicken Air, and Steve Bashir, who wound up being a great governor in Kentucky. But yeah, Wallace then came and won. It's the first time we'd ever worked for a wealthy candidate. That was kind of fun. And helpful.”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

26. “Yeah. And I remember Casey was torn he had a relationship with the Clintons, but here was this young senator who took time out to go campaign for him and was electrifying. And it was over Easter weekend. And he called me up. He said, I went out to the lakehouse in Lake Ariel in northeast Pennsylvania. And he said, and I sat with the girls. He has four girls. And he said, I just, I can't be true to them. And what we believe in is a family and not come out now and support Barack. And I thought that was so honorable. By the way, he called Hillary and she was accepting of that. She wasn't happy. But the way he conducted himself, even opposing my candidate was with such honor. He's just a remarkable guy.”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

27. “I was there. It was phenomenal. I mean, I know people think Obama came out of nowhere. He was once in a generation talent. Yeah, I know. Even then. I know some.”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

28. “He, in fact, acts. He called me just out of a curse. We're very close friends, and I'd help in his campaign. And he called me when he decided to endorse Barack Obama in the primaries. Hillary had gone and campaigned for Bobby. So had Senator Obama in Pittsburgh.”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

29. “Ed Rendell. So it was really remarkable race. And we've stayed close. Governor has passed, but he and Mrs. Casey have eight kids, one of whom, his oldest son, is the senator from Pennsylvania. Also a client of mine.”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

30. “And the elites all look down their noses at him. They used to call them the three time loss from Holy Cross. Because, you know, he'd gone to that Catholic school in Massachusetts. Casey Ward is a badge of honor, and he taught me this. I say this to my kids all the time. The view from the canvas is highly educational. Mr. Casey, you say that all the time. And if you can pick yourself up again and put yourself forward. But it was an epic race. He was running against Bill Scranton, the third. And here was Casey, his son of a coal miner from Scranton. And then there was Scranton, the son of the coal mine owner from Scranton. It was epic, a very close race. By the way, in the primaries, Casey defeated a young Philadelphia DA.”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

31. “Bob Casey, the late governor, was one of my heroes. He had run and lost three times before. And in Pennsylvania, the elites really looked down on him. He's a blue-collar guy out of Scranton. He was a lawyer, his accomplished guy.”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

32. “I think we're taping this June 22nd. Yes. Yeah. We're going to see. I think at some point McCain's just going to stand up and punch Trump in the nose. Rhetorically, I hope. I do. I don't think he can bottle it up. I think he's actually too authentic. I think he's faking when he says Trump is right”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

33. “He could make a claim based on his record, but for Latino votes, he seems to be going the other way. I think that's tragedy. Yeah.”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

34. “I think as a strategist, he's betting on the wrong side here. The future of his state is not Sheriff Joe Arpio and former Governor Jan Brewer and Donald Trump, the old angry white people. That's not the future of his state. The future of his state is younger and more diverse and increasingly Latino. He sponsored essentially the president's immigration plan. Yes, absolutely. He got 31% of the Hispanic vote. Not great, but a whole lot better than Romney.”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

35. “I think that's a shame. And as someone who likes and admires Senator McCain, I feel like we've had a glimpse at the real man who is a really impressive person and a great hero.”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

36. “You know, that's right. And I think everybody has that need to be a part of something larger than themselves. Senator McCain used to say that all the time. It wasn't just Senator Obama running saying, you know, yes, we can. The need to be a part of something larger than yourself, especially in a country like this that could become so atomized so quickly. So important to tie people back together. And campaigns can't do that. Yes, it divides Team A versus Team B. But within that team, the closest friends of my life I met through campaigns.”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

37. “It was against Phil Graham. It was the Reagan landslide in Texas, and we were buried. And Graham's enormously talented, but we, you know, we lost. And I still haven't fully gotten over it. But you need that too. You know, the heartbreak, but also the camaraderie”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

38. “And it's just fun. That's the thing that, you know, yes, it's hard work and it's heartbreaking. When we worked for Dog, it was the worst defeat in Texas history for a Democrat. It's heartbreaking. And actually a friend of mine.”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

39. “But it is great, and like you, I love campaigns and I especially love the fact that it attracts young people. I still love, I miss the campaign headquarters, you know, and I travel around, I try to go and campaign. So one of the reasons why...”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

40. “Fight about strategy, fight about what we ought to be doing, which clients to take? Sure, never fight about money, which is, as you know, in a partnership, that's usually how these things bust up.”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

41. “Yeah, James is my partner for now 30 some odd years and best friend you could ever hope for best business in all those years I don't know how many countries how many states never won fight about money”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

42. “And Carvel, in the interview, says, I think we just ought to say we don't need more washing and thinking in Texas, we need more Texas thinking in Washington. And I knew Doggy would never hire him because James was too unconventional. So I wrote it down, thought I'm going to steal that line. Well, he wound up hiring James, and I've still stolen his lines ever since.”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

43. “First time I met James Carville's 1983 going into the 84 campaign. And James said never won a thing in his life. He was kind of a journeyman out of Baton Rouge. And I still remember we were in a primary against Congressman Bob Kruger, moderate Democrat. Congressman Kent Hance, conservative Democrat, who got elected to the House beating George W. Bush. And then Dockett was the liberal Democrat. Back then, we thought the Democratic primary was it. It had been in Texas history until then. The two congressmen kept saying, well, Doggett has no Washington experience. It's hard to imagine today that that was a bad thing, but it was. He could never get a bill passed. He can't deliver for Texas because he's never even worked in Congress.”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

44. “Pretty good. Well, McKinnon actually came and just did data entry. He was looking for a job. And he came in and did that. I was the travel aide. I carried the candidates' bags. By the end of the campaign, I was a speechwriter because I had interned for Lloyd and his.”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

45. “An inspiring songwriter. But yeah, Big Mac was a great skeptic that government could do any good. And it's still so ironic that he wound up advising George W. Bush.”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

46. “Johnny was the editor of the paper. Mark had been a year or two before that, but was always back then, Mark, he wasn't a Democrat and he wasn't a liberal. He was a Marxist. He was way out there. And so, of course, he was”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

47. “Yeah, he was sort of fading out. You know what I mean? He was aging out. He was a couple years ahead of me and had been the editor of the paper. I have to say, Mark gets this wrong. He puts himself as the editor of the time. He wasn't. Johnny Schwartz was now a reporter for The New York Times.”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

48. “Who wound up being advisor to George W. Bush, who proved that government would screw up a one car parade if you have the wrong people in charge”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

49. “There used to be Hank Stock, which was a big party we had, but I think now that all of us are in late middle age, we've kind of stopped.”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

50. “So it sounds like Highest office I could ever aspire to is student body present University of Texas. I'm still very active there. I mean, last night was emailing with the outgoing studentbody president on campus there. I'm still real active. My son's a student. And I'm just thrilled. I really do believe, obviously, in government. And I love seeing these kids engaged and making a difference. But that was it for me. I never wanted to.”

    2016-07-04 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 63 - Paul Begala · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source