Paul Begala Explains Why the Democrats Should Still Have Hope, then Insults Deirdre Imus

As the trapped Chilean miners were lifted one by one from the darkness to the light this morning, Imus compared their plight—being stuck in a hot, dark, stinky bunker 2,000 feet underground for months—to that of the Democrats this election cycle.

“That’s quite a metaphor,” Paul Begala, the Democratic strategist and former aide to President Bill Clinton, told Imus, and protested that the situation for his Party had improved in the last week or so.

“The spotlight has now shifted to the Republicans,” he said, and quoted his pal James Carville, who said, “Voters want to sent a message to Washington, but they don’t particularly want to send a Republican to Washington."

Imus had explained his theory—that all of the people still hoping for change from 2008 were simply going to send a new bunch of crooks to Washington in November to replace the ones already there—to Sean Hannity yesterday, but didn’t get much credit for it.

“You have to talk real slow with Sean,” Begala, who claims to like Hannity, said, though he agreed with the very conservative talk show host that not everybody in Congress is a crook. “People are mad at the Democrats, but they’re no happier with the Republicans,”

In 1994, when the Republicans swept the House and the Senate on the heels of Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America,” Democratic favorability was far lower than that of Republicans. “Today, as much as they hate the Democrats, by a slight margin they hate the Republicans more,” Begala said of the electorate.

He actually credited Gingrich with “making his movement about a set of ideas that people actually wanted,” unlike today’s Republicans, who hope to put Wall Street in charge of Social Security and insurance companies in charge of Medicare.

To Imus’s point that Obama’s health care plan was no better, and would bankrupt hospitals, Begala claimed otherwise, noting that the American Hospitals Association supported the bill. “Go and ask them if they want insurance companies to be in charge of Medicare,” he dared Imus.

Sharron AngleWithout patronizing or demonizing Republicans or the Tea Party movement, Begala begged people to take an honest look at their ideas. “This is what they stand for: that woman Sharron Angle out in Nevada says that Social Security violates the First Commandment,” he said. “Not amendment—commandment.”

As Imus was about to ask Begala whether voters still care about a candidate’s position on abortion or the death penalty, he mentioned that he discussed this topic during last week’s Blonde on Blonde segment with Deirdre Imus and Lis Wiehl.

“Lis Wiehl’s a smart woman,” Begala jumped in. “Real smart. Tell Lis I said hey.”

Wrong move. “What’s Deirdre? A little slow out of the chute?” Imus asked Begala.

Though he tried to apologize by claiming he shares Deirdre’s passion for cancer treatment and research, Imus wasn’t having it. “It’s too late,” he told his liberal pansy guest.

-Julie Kanfer