Mary Matalin: Obama's Speech Contained Too Many "Zingers"

Republican strategist Mary Matalin, who served as assistant to President George W. Bush and counselor to Vice President Dick Cheney, chatted with Imus this morning. Friends for nearly twenty years, Matalin and Imus give each other a hard time about, well, everything.

Matalin was in Washington, DC this morning, but was not present at last week's inaugural festivities. While she admits to having some "capacity for American history," she thought President Barack Obama's speech contained too many "zingers" on Bush. Imus took issue with Matalin's criticism.

"They did some good things," he said about Bush and Cheney. "But they also nearly ruined the country, and in the process ruined America's standing in the world."

To which Matalin replied, "We're in a change culture Imus, we're all changing! We're the change we have been waiting for! Kumbaya!"

Asked whether Bush and Cheney will ever speak to each other again, Matalin assured Imus that the two had in fact already been in touch.

"Are they trying to get their stories straight in case there's a trial?" Imus wondered.

Moving on, Imus and Matalin actually agreed that Obama's Chief-of-Staff Rahm Emmanuel is a wonderful choice for that job.

"As partisan as Rahm can be, he was that way when it was his job to be so," Matalin said. "When he gives his word-and that includes to Republicans-he keeps his word."

They also found common ground on Vice President Joe Biden, ("a phony," in Imus's opinion), whom Matalin said does not appear to be in lock step with Obama.

"Unlike the White House that you love to hate," said Matalin about her former bosses, "We did have a very integrated operation."

She added that for Biden, who spent more than 30 years in the Senate, there would be an adjustment period to the White House environment.

"The culture of the Senate and the Congress is different from the culture of the White House," Matalin said. "People want the White House to have a certain appropriateness."

Imus and Matalin hit their stride when they agreed that Caroline Kennedy was wise to withdraw from consideration for Hillary Clinton's U.S. Senate seat. Yet Matalin disputed Imus's notion that Kennedy's ineptitude with the media bore any resemblance to that of Sarah Palin, by pointing to Palin's 80 percent approval rating in Alaska.

"80 percent?" Imus interrupted. "There's three Eskimos and a polar bear up there."

Matalin sighed, and said, "I really feel like we're married. We have the same conversation over and over, and neither one of us listens to the other guy, and we never change each other's positions."

-Julie Kanfer