The wisdom of Mary Matalin

From NBC News' Meet the Press, appearing with James Carville, May 8

On the fight over the Bolton nomination:

This is not about politics.  This is about getting the right appointment in the right place.  There is very few people in government who understand better than John Bolton what the primary purpose of the United Nations is, which is global, collective security.  That's as was stated its primary charter.

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Furthermore, he's a highly skilled and accomplished public servant.  He's been in four Senate-confirmed positions with three presidents, and finally he is a wonderful man with a generous heart, a great sense of humor.  He's quiet and he's a man of humbleness and humility and the John Bolton that's being portrayed in this attack is another instance of nothing, no agenda, just obstructionism by the Democrats, is everything to do with politics on their side and in our side everything to do with getting the best people in the best place in the best policy to assure just not America's security but global peace.

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We're not just defending him.  We're very proud of him.  This was an affirmative choice.  The people who're coming out of the woodwork are avowed, outspoken Bush bashers.  The woman that came out of Texas who was chased down the hall, allegedly, which there's no other contemporaneous witnesses, is Mothers Against Bush.  See, these are Bush bashers.  These are against Bush policies.  They're not against the whole policy.

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He did not try to manipulate intelligence data. He did not try to dismiss people.  He had taken issue with people who lied to him, who barefaced lied to him.

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Not only is he going to be confirmed, he is going to make America proud.  He's going to be one of our best ambassadors to the U.N., mark my words.

On Tom DeLay:

He's effective on all sorts of legislation like that and that's why they want to take him out.  It's not about Tom DeLay. It's about obstructing the president's agenda, and it is about what they're always about, which is demonizing.  You know, it's a politics of personal destruction, which they've taken to an art form.

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It's a witch hunt.

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In the absence of no agenda in the prescribed self-destructive strategy of obstruction, as long as they can keep attacking DeLay and they don't have to put anything on the table, that fits in with their strategy, which really isn't James' strategy. You should not be blamed for the self-destructive trajectory your party's on.

On conservative attacks on federal judges, and criticism from MoveOn.org in a new TV ad:

(Videotape, MoveOn.org ad):

AD VOICEOVER:  Osama bin Laden ordered the worst terrorist attack in American history.  Yet last Sunday Pat Robertson, a leader of the religious right, actually claimed that federal judges are a more serious threat to America than "a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings."  Will Bill Frist and Tom DeLay continue to pander to the radical fringe or will they have the guts to repudiate Pat Robertson and all the others who are threatening our federal judges?

(End videotape)

MS. MATALIN:  It's demagoguery.  That's sheer demagoguery ... I think that was an injudicious thing (for Pat Robertson) to say, but that the secular left has behaved imperialistically -- there's no other word for it. They have subverted the democratic process by taking their issues to the judiciary.  What the so-called religious right has done has taken their petition and their concerns into the democratic process, into the public square.  They organize and they try to affect legislation, as opposed to being the subverted process of democracy which is what the secular left does.

This is all demagoguery.  There is a secular left.  There is a religious right.  It is the way in which the secular left overestimates its uniformity is funny.  They're not -- there's not just Christian conservatives.  There is a lot of the people who are concerned about traditional values and in politics and in the public square.  There are lots of Jews, there are a lot of conservative Muslims.  There are -- it's ecumenical.  There's Catholics.  It's across the board.  There is not a uniformity.  There's lots of pluralism and they're part of the democratic process.  And this is just demagoguery on the parts of these left-wing extremists.

James Carville finally says something useful:

MR. CARVILLE:  It's kind of odd that Pat Robertson is saying that the federal judges are worse than Osama bin Laden and we're getting accused of demagoguery.  I mean, if there's anything more demagogic than saying that, I have no idea what it is.

MS. MATALIN:  One of the judges that's up, Janice Rogers Brown, who's phenomenally qualified ... she can't get through. Priscilla Owen can't get through.

(Blog editor's note: To see just how phenomenally qualified Ms. Brown and Ms. Owen are, click here and here.)

It's another example of obstruction.  It's petty obstruction.  It's not even principled obstruction.

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On Hillary Clinton's presidential prospects in 2008:

She's a Northeast liberal ... Bring them on. Northeast liberals. We want them.