The Buzz Board
Picks from the Inner Circle
Paul Begala
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Paul Begala is a CNN political contributor and a research professor at Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute. He was a senior strategist for the 1992 Clinton-Gore campaign and served as counselor to President Clinton in the White House. Author, political consultant, commentator, and former adviser to President Bill Clinton. |
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 Just finished John Cassidy's How Markets Fail. It is a careful but readable journey through the philosophical and theoretical framework that caused the economic collapse. It's essential reading for those of us who are already sick of right-wing hacks claiming sensible regulation of the casino economy is an infringement on liberty. Conservative economists, theoreticians, and politicians ruined the economy, period. Cassidy explains the failed theory they used to do so. |
Paul Begala
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Paul Begala is a CNN political contributor and a research professor at Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute. He was a senior strategist for the 1992 Clinton-Gore campaign and served as counselor to President Clinton in the White House. Author, political consultant, commentator, and former adviser to President Bill Clinton. |
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Every American—certainly every American who believes in economic and social progress—should read Ted Kennedy's memoir. True Compass will inspire you, entertain you and move you. I was privileged to know Sen. Kennedy, and his memoir is like spending a long weekend with him. It is what Kennedy was: flawed but fearless, realistic but optimistic, and endlessly, effervescently American. If ever there was a life worth lived it was his. As the cause of his life, health care reform, grinds closer to reality, I miss him more than ever. As Paul Simon said of Joe DiMaggio, "A nation turns its lonely eyes to you." Through his memoir, Teddy turns his gaze back to us, reminding us to live, love, laugh and care about our fellow Americans. |
Paul Begala
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Paul Begala is a CNN political contributor and a research professor at Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute. He was a senior strategist for the 1992 Clinton-Gore campaign and served as counselor to President Clinton in the White House. Author, political consultant, commentator, and former adviser to President Bill Clinton. |
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Gordon Goldstein's Lessons in Disaster and Jon Krakauer's Where Men Win Glory have shaped my thinking about Afghanistan. One is the story of an Ivy League WASP genius who blundered us into a pointless war that cost 50,000 American heroes their lives. The other is the story of a middle-class kid who gave his life for his country. McGeorge Bundy was a Harvard dean who didn't question basic assumptions; Pat Tillman was an NFL star who questioned everything: He doubted religion, he questioned the legitimacy of the Iraq war and chafed at Army regimentation. The iconoclast was the real patriot; the establishment genius the one who failed our country. When Tillman lost his life to friendly fire, our government lied to his family to cover up the truth. Questioning authority is a high form of patriotism, while blindly sucking up to power ill serves our country. |
Paul Begala
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Paul Begala is a CNN political contributor and a research professor at Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute. He was a senior strategist for the 1992 Clinton-Gore campaign and served as counselor to President Clinton in the White House. Author, political consultant, commentator, and former adviser to President Bill Clinton. |
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Although I’ve been in Washington for longer than I care to state, my roots and my boots are firmly planted in the Lone Star State. I grew up in Missouri City, Texas—about 45 miles due south of Klein, Texas, the home of Lyle P. Lovett. But even if you’re not in a Lone Star state of mind, I’ll bet Lovett’s new CD, Natural Forces, will move you. It’s a little more bluegrass than bluesy, the Large Band pared down for a more country sound. And yet Lovett’s vocals cut clean to the heart. My buddy Chad Clanton from Waco says Lovett’s like a drink of Dr Pepper (the national drink of Waco), “smooth and sweet.” Me, I prefer Shiner Bock beer to Dr Pepper. But do yourself a favor: Pour a glass of whatever smoothes and soothes you and let Brother Lovett transport you to the banks of the Brazos. |
Paul Begala
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RSS
Paul Begala is a CNN political contributor and a research professor at Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute. He was a senior strategist for the 1992 Clinton-Gore campaign and served as counselor to President Clinton in the White House. Author, political consultant, commentator, and former adviser to President Bill Clinton. |
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I'm reading The State of Jones by Sally Jenkins and John Stauffer. Jenkins, one of the most gifted sportswrtiers of our time, teams up with an eminent Harvard historian to bring a little-known (and deliberately hidden) chapter of our history to life. Newton Knight led a band of heroes in Jones County, Mississippi, to oppose the Confederacy. A mini-civil war, with much of the cruelty and carnage of the larger war, played out in Jones County. The book is filled with original research from heretofore unknown documents, yet it carries the reader along a compelling and powerful narrative. A must read for anyone who thinks they know the history of the Civil War, the American South, and race in America. |
Paul Begala
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RSS
Paul Begala is a CNN political contributor and a research professor at Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute. He was a senior strategist for the 1992 Clinton-Gore campaign and served as counselor to President Clinton in the White House. Author, political consultant, commentator, and former adviser to President Bill Clinton. |
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If there's a better CD this year than Willie and the Wheel, I'll two-step over to your house, kiss your ass, say it smells like roses—and give you an hour to draw a crowd. As an old Austinite, we have a name for people who don't believe in Willie Nelson: atheists. Nelson has teamed up with Asleep at the Wheel, the high priests of Western Swing. Ray Benson, the hub of the Wheel, is the real deal, and so is his band. Austin Music City calls Willie and the Wheel "One of the finest albums ever recorded. Download it, uplink it, iTune it or just buy it—it'll put a spring in your step and beat back the recession blues. |
Paul Begala
Info
RSS
Paul Begala is a CNN political contributor and a research professor at Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute. He was a senior strategist for the 1992 Clinton-Gore campaign and served as counselor to President Clinton in the White House. Author, political consultant, commentator, and former adviser to President Bill Clinton. |
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Eric Boehlert at Media Matters for America has exploded the myth that UAW autoworkers make $70 or more per hour. And yet serious news people like Mika Brzezinski continue to cite it. It just ain’t true. UAW workers are paid $28 an hour. That’s wages, not including health care and retirement, but there’s no way that health and retirement benefits can constitute over $40 per employee per hour. As Boehlert points out, the $70 figure comes from adding together all of GM’s health care costs (including retirees), all of its labor costs and all of its pension costs. The woes of the Big Three are legion―and most can be laid at the feet of executives who would not make the fuel-efficient, low-emission cars the world wants. The exploding health care costs, of course, are not the fault of the Big Three, but rather of right-wingers who continue to kill any proposal for universal national health care, which every other successful capitalist nation has. So before you go believing the oft-repeated media myth that somehow what’s ailing America is that we pay our blue collar working stiffs too much, check out the facts here. Funny, I don’t hear my fellow pundits and journalists complaining that the reason media companies are in trouble is because they’re paying us too much. |
Paul Begala
Info
RSS
Paul Begala is a CNN political contributor and a research professor at Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute. He was a senior strategist for the 1992 Clinton-Gore campaign and served as counselor to President Clinton in the White House. Author, political consultant, commentator, and former adviser to President Bill Clinton. |
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The Dictator’s Shadow by Heraldo Munoz is a gripping first-person account of the 9/11/73 fascist revolution of Augusto Pinochet in Chile. He was an idealistic young leader with a new American bride. He risked his life to oppose the dictator, who was supported by the Nixon Administration. While most might have become embittered – against America if not politics in general – Munoz endured arrest and a brutal beating to stand strong for freedom. Today he is now Chile’s ambassador to the UN, where he tried to stop the war in Iraq. And despite America’s support for Pinochet, Munoz is an admirer of America and a fearless advocate of freedom and human rights. |
