For A ‘Rabid Dog,’ He Knows A Few Tricks

Before he became a genius, movie star, author and loudmouthed TV eccentric, James Carville was an unknown Democratic warhorse struggling to elect Harris Wofford to the U.S. Senate.

One day, while jabbering about politics, Carville casually mentioned he was “seeing” a woman.

“Only thing is, she works for the Republican National Committee,” he said. “So, I don’t know … “

“Must make some interesting arguments at dinner,” I said.

“Nah,” said Carville.

“When plumbers date, do they talk about leaky faucets?”

I thought of that conversation when Mrs. Carville, who operates under her maiden name of Mary Matalin, went on national television to call her husband a “rabid dog.”

Precisely, Mary called James a “frothing, rabid dog,” terms wives usually reserve for divorce court.

Not to worry. Carville and Matalin didn’t become a high-powered Odd Couple by playing Ozzie and Harriet. His high-octane antics as Bill Clinton’s guru starred Carville in the documentary “War Room.”

She bitterly went into defeat with George Bush.

They married, wrote a book. Matalin is a radio/TV host, while Carville works at his Ragin’ Cajun act.

Now Carville has pulled off one of his more brilliant scams.

And Matalin, by wifely design or ideological fervor, has fallen into James’ gamesmanship.

When he made threatening noises to raise money for a TV ad campaign denouncing special prosecutor Kenneth Starr as a partisan assassin running a vendetta against Bill and Hillary Clinton, Carville was hit by brickbats.

“How can Starr be non-partisan?” Carville raged. “Look at the circumstances in which he got the job. He’s under pressure from the extreme right wing. He represents cigarette companies, big enemies of the president. He makes speeches at Pat Robertson’s college. He harasses witnesses. No wonder 42 percent of the American people think Starr’s too partisan.”

Carville warned that Starr should straighten up or he’d raise $200,000 to blast him with a negative ad blitz.

Well, you’d think Richard Nixon had again fired Archibald Cox in Saturday Night Massacre II.

Republicans such as Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said Carville was playing with fire - namely, obstructing justice. Democratic senators harrumphed that Carville was “counterproductive.” The politically correct New York Times grumped that Carville was out of bounds. Former special prosecutor Joe diGenova accused Carville of “the O.J. Simpson-ising of Whitewater.”

Like other critics, Mary Matalin called upon the president to muzzle her husband’s scandalous behavior.

“Why is the president letting Carville do this?” asked Mrs. Carville heatedly. “James has no standing to do anything except shoot his mouth off.”

The president’s flack Mike McCurry insisted “no one can control James” - obviously including his wife.

Clearly enjoying the brouhaha, Carville said he wasn’t in cahoots with Clinton. Shucks, he’d been talked out of attacking Starr earlier by Clinton insider George Stephanopoulos. So he’d written a letter in 1994 distancing himself from the White House.

“No,” said Clinton, asked if he approved of Carville’s slash-and-burn tactics.

Never mind that during the ‘96 campaign, pressed whether Starr was out to “get” Bill and Hillary, the prez said, “Isn’t it obvious?”

That’s when Mary Matalin put her husband in the doghouse.

“It stretches credulity that the White House can’t stop this rabid dog,” Mrs. Carville said on a Fox News show. “He’s not my husband when I speak of him as a frothing, rabid dog.”

Switching canine metaphors, Mrs. Carville blamed Clinton for letting “this pit bull” run free.

With no wiretaps inside the Carville household, I don’t know whether Matalin is an accomplice or a truly outraged critic. But Carville’s clever gimmick is working.

His threat, as Carville cunningly suspected, generated furious controversy, Republican blasts and talk-show heat.

Without spending a dollar, Carville has planted cynicism in the public’s mind.

If Starr brings indictments against Clinton & Co., many will suspect him of partisan zeal. And Ken Starr has been unnerved into a counter-P.R. campaign.

He’s given an interview to Newsweek defending his work. He made an Oklahoma speech in which he said Whitewater was about “spousal integrity” - a jab at Hillary? - and hinted that, like Archie Cox, he might be fired.

“If he (Starr) stops representing the president’s enemies and is a full-time, non-partisan prosecutor, I won’t have to run TV spots against him,” Carville now says grandly.

OK, James, a slick ploy if it doesn’t backfire. You defended your man Clinton. If you didn’t goad him into wider indictments, you cast doubts on Starr’s Mr. Clean authority.

But I suspect it’s going to be a cold winter out in Mary’s kennel.

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