Imus Breaks News To Paul Begala About CNN

Paul Begala, the Democratic strategist, said Fox's Brit Hume could have cited the words of country legend Billy Joe Shaver in recommending that Tiger Woods, a Buddhist, become a Christian to save his soul.

"If you don't love Jesus, go to hell," Begala quoted, then said, "My own guess is that Tiger Woods's problem was more bootie than Buddhism."

Other people with problems these days are Congressional Democrats up for reelection. Some, like Senator Chris Dodd today, have announced they will not seek another term.

"My guess is it's his political health," Begala said of Dodd's decision. "Here he's 30 years in the Senate, looking at the fight of his life, poll numbers bad. Some of it I think is because he moved out to Iowa when he ran for President. Maybe people in Connecticut didn't like that very much."

Imus chalked Dodd's recent unpopularity up to him cutting a bunch of slack to his Wall Street buddies, and to getting a sweetheart mortgage deal himself.

"But he was cleared by the Senate Ethics Committee," said Begala, stifling laughter.

The changes in the Senate this year will be plentiful, and not just for Democrats, who will lose stalwarts like Dodd and North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan. Republican Senators Sam Brownback, Judd Gregg, and George Voinovich are also retiring.

Imus, sick of this topic, told Begala President Obama should have taken more responsibility for the intelligence breakdown that allowed Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to board and try to blow up a plane headed for Detroit.

"I can tell you were watching me on 'Anderson Cooper' last night, because I made that very point," said Begala, who was then informed that neither Imus nor anybody else in America watches CNN, ever.

A former speechwriter, Begala thought Obama, speaking yesterday after he met with his national security team, should have said, "the buck stops here." Which he didn't.

"First off, substantively and morally, it's the right thing," said Begala. "Second, you don't want to just dump on the intelligence community."

Taking more personal responsibility would have also been politically expedient, in Begala's view, and he recalled President John F. Kennedy's expert handling of the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961.

"Kennedy stood up in front of the country and he said, 'I am the responsible officer of this government,'" Begala said. "The next Gallup Poll had his favorable at 86, and his unfavorable at 5."

Begala said Kennedy later told people, "If I keep screwing up like this, I'll go to 100 percent."

-Julie Kanfer