TPM's Horse's Mouth wonders about Carville on MTP Sunday with Matalin, Shrum.

[madfloridian]

TPM's Horse's Mouth has asked NBC if he will be disclosed as being close to the Hillary campaign. The post points out that no other candidate is represented.

Hillary-Backer Carville Set To Appear On Sunday's Meet The Press

One of the stranger media phenomenons of Campaign 2008 has been the odd race to the bottom we've been seeing between Tim Russert and CNN. First Russert asked his typical "gotcha" questions at his debate. Then CNN's Wolf Blitzer praised Russert's performance as "tough." Then Wolf proceeded to deliver an equally unproductive performance as the moderator of CNN's debate.

Now there's more of this. As you recall, CNN put Hillary supporter James Carville on its debate roundup -- prompting critics to point out that the network failed to identify her sufficiently as a Hillary supporter and that the network has been giving a platform to Hillary-backing "independent" analysts for way too long.

Well, guess who is now set to appear on Meet the Press this coming weekend? Hillary supporter James Carville, of course. The network has just confirmed to me that Carville is one of the guests set to appear this Sunday. The other guests, as of now, are Bob Shrum, Mary Matalin and Mike Murphy -- which is to say, no backer of any of the other Dem candidates.

What gives here? Aren't there any other Dems out there -- you know, neutral ones -- who are qualified to comment on this race? Given the criticism that hit CNN over this -- criticism that came from rival Dem campaigns as well as from other observers -- did Meet the Press really have to follow suit? And if the network really can't imagine a discussion of presidential politics without Carville, what about backers of the other Dems? This just gets weirder and weirder

..."I've checked in with an NBC spokesperson and asked whether Carville will be clearly and repeatedly identified as a Hillary partisan, whether other Dem candidates will be represented, and if not, what the reason for this is. If I hear anything back I'll let you know.

James has been a busy guy lately. He is becoming visible even more as the primary comes closer. This interview was interesting. He says Hillary will win, and talks about how exciting and sassy Mary Matalin is.

Carville Q&A from Georgia

CARVILLE: Yow. You'll have to see me out there (during my speech). On the Republican side I haven't the foggiest idea, and I don't think anybody else does. On the Democratic side I'd say, probably Hillary. ... I think that she's gonna get tested before, but I think she'll be fine in the end.

..."TELEGRAPH: Who's the biggest jerk in Washington?

CARVILLE: Lot of people say me. (Laughs.) Oh, the biggest jerk. I'll let that go. ... That's probably the most competitive title in the world today.

TELEGRAPH: What advice would you give couples that don't always agree, whether it be politics or not?

CARVILLE: Well, that would be every couple in America. (Laughs.) I don't know any couple that always agrees. I'd say, know what ... it's like anything else. You know what causes grief, and you feel the pain and you tend to try to avoid it. I think every marriage is a kind of search for ground that you're both comfortable with. And I know in our marriage sometimes there are things I know if I bring them up, they're going to end up in an explosion or unpleasantness. And over the years, even as slow as I am, I've learned to try to avoid 'em. I mean sometimes you just say something and you pay the price for it and you learn why you're so stupid. But I think that people, if they've been married, or if they got married, there must have been something there that caused them to do it. And you gotta keep searching for what that is. And we'll be 14 years this month.

TELEGRAPH: What was it that connected for you guys?

CARVILLE: She was a very - my wife is a very kind of exciting, kind of sassy, really kind of good looking. She's a physically attractive woman. She's mentally sharp. She's kind of bossy and brassy, and I never was much for the kind of magnolia and moonlight type, you know. And I still find her exciting.

I seldom call anyone a jerk, but after all he called himself one didn't he?

I really don't like him, and I refuse to watch any show he is on. He took all the joy out of winning in November 2006, when a few days later he called for Dean to be fired and replaced with Harold Ford.

He made a lot of people angry, and he even got a not so nice letter from several state chairmen. One of the best was from the NC Democratic chairman.

I think it gave a lot of us a look of the problems in the party. To me he is an epitome of the battles going on now in the party.

At least his buddy and fellow CNN analyst, Paul Begala, apologized for the nose-picking comment.

Carville hasn't apologized for anything.