Paul Begala Doesn't Hold Back. What Else is New?

Imus wondered how his guest Paul Begala responds to the question, “What do you do?”

“I say I work for Goldman Sachs,” said Begala, “It makes you a lot more popular than saying you’re a political pundit. We’re the lowest form of life.”

A former aide to President Bill Clinton, Begala wasn’t sure how his former boss would have handled the situation presently facing President Obama, who might have to fire General Stanley McChrystal for speaking disrespectfully about Obama and other administration officials in a forthcoming Rolling Stone Magazine article.  

“The guy’s got to go,” Begala said of McChrystal, the Commander of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan and a 4-star general with more than 30 years of service to this country. “I think he’s a remarkable warrior, but you can’t put up with that kind of insubordination.”

Although several of the more offensive things McChrystal allegedly said about his superiors were quoted indirectly from his aides, the General is not denying that he described National Security Advisor General Jim Jones as “a clown,” or that he pronounced the Vice President’s name as Joe “Bite Me.”

“He turns out to be right about all those things,” said Imus, who believes the real mistake McChrystal and his aides made was being dumb enough to let the reporter Michael Hastings hang out with them in informal settings where everything was on the record.

Which is something Begala understands well; as a young advisor in Clinton’s first term, he trash-talked some of the most senior people in the administration, and Bob Woodward put it all in a book.

“I had to go around and apologize to all of them,” he recalled. “So I don’t have clean hands here.”

The real problem, in Begala’s view, is that the Afghanistan policy of which McChrystal was so critical in the Rolling Stone piece is the policy that he publicly pressured the President to adopt last year.

“The McChrystal policy is the Obama policy,” said Begala, adding, “If the point is that the McChrystal strategy is so delicate and precious that only McChrystal can run it, it’s not much of a strategy.”

And Americans aren’t the only ones waiting to see if Obama fires McChrystal. “Vladimir Putin is watching this,” said Begala. “That little nut in Pyongyang is watching this.”

When the President is made to look weak, as is the case now, he has to be strong, in Begala’s view. “I think you call him in, you thank him for three decades of selfless, heroic service,” he said of the General. “And you fire his ass.”

Speaking of fiery asses, Imus told Begala that part of his holistic prostate cancer treatment includes downing more about 35 habanera peppers daily, but in pill form. 

To which Begala disgustingly replied, “Do they burn twice?”

-Julie Kanfer