Begala: Calling GOP Donors "Dirtbags" Is An Insult To Dirtbags

Paul Begala wants to apologize for a recent email he sent to Democratic donors in which he called Republican fundraisers "fat-cats", "wimpy, whiny wussies", and "dirtbags."

"I think it was wrong for me to call those fat cat lobbyists dirtbags," said the longtime Clinton confidante. "It is an insult to bags for dirt around the world."

Begalla recently sent an email to supporters of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in which he belittled a gathering of Republican financiers as "wall to wall" fat-cats.

"The limos were lined up around the block. If you'd stood in the middle of the ballroom and yelled, 'Hey dirtbag!' a thousand necks would have snapped around," Begala wrote.

The letter drew howls of protest from the National Republican Congressional Committee, which responded by referencing Bill Clinton as "a real dirtbag," while running a fundraising pitch of its own. Senator John Cornyn, too, sought to capitalize on the remark, sending a letter to backers paraphrasing Begala's words and writing: "Ouch, that really, really hurts coming from such a stand up guy."

Begala, reached by phone, took a sort of perverse political pride in the reaction he'd engendered. Not wanting the war of words to end, the Democratic strategist offered up several colloquialisms -- "a hit dog barks," being one -- to explain the fallout. After which, he continued to weigh the merits between dirt and the Republican financiers

"A bag of dirt will have the occasional fecal matter, but generally dirt is good," he said. "I'm a gardener and I grow tomatoes. I love dirt. I should have said oil bag [when talking about GOP donors], or a chemical bag or toxic bag. After all life grows out of dirt."

Read Begala's remarks, Ken Spain, a spokesman for the NRCC, couldn't suppress a hearty giggle and promised to get back with a reaction. Shortly later, he did, offering a personalized zinger of his own.

"Paul Begala's use of words like 'dirtbag' and 'oilbag' truly exemplify why he is considered to be such a gifted and talented communicator," wrote Spain. "One only needs to look at his contributions to the literary world with books like "Buck Up, Suck Up, and Come Back when You Foul Up" to understand why Senator Hillary Clinton's nails-on-a-chalkboard message was such an immense success this primary season."

Comments

[Powderhound522]

I can't help but laugh at this. In fact, I laughed out loud in the middle of the office.

That being said, this kind of name-calling is exactly what we DON'T need in this country. The atmosphere is so poisonous already, this sort of thing just makes the situation worse and decreases our chances of fixing our problems.

[SatinPanties]

***PRESS RELEASE***

The America Federation of Dirtbags, AFD, issues strongly worded refutation letter to Mr. Begala.

On behalf of the American Federation of Dirtbags we strongly refute your comparing our useful and noble efforts to all Americans to those destructive habits of the Republi can Party.

We strongly urge you to publicly apologize to all dirtbags, not only in this country, but around the world. Your comparison has brought derision and shame to every dirtbad, new and old, new and used, and the occasional dirtbag that gets used in sewage treatment plants.

Please consider this request. There are other bags out there that would more closely resemble Republi cans, such as Dou che bags (which refused to join our union), Sh# tbags (which broke away from the union to form their own), and old gas bags (which by their vacuous nature we are reluctant to accept in our Union).

Sincerely,
AFD President

[Vyvjala]

Come on Paul, tell us what you really think.....­..........

[kdubbg]

douchebags.

[Speakchic]

HA! Another former Clintonite on the attack. Love it!

[tanyainsacramento]

HAHAA WELL AT LEAST HE AINT SCREAMIN PUMA!
HE STILLL DOES WHAT HE DO AND HE DOES IT THOROUGHLY..I AINT MAD AT HIM..HAHAHA..NOT THIS TIME ANYWAY

[dadw5boys]

strategist?????

ANYONE THEY PUT ON T.V. TO TALK ABOUT POLITICS IS CALLED A STRATEGIST, EVEN IF THEY JUST ANSWER A PHONE FOR SOME POLITICAL OFFICE !!!!!!!!

[rob515]

I love the fact that people like Begala and General Clark are making the statements that they are making, and not backing off when the Republicans feign insult. I'm pretty tired of hearing Democrats apologize to the Republicans, when the Republicans seem to be able to say anything they want with no outcry from anybody. DIRTBAGS! I love it!

[Purobi]

Totally agree. Thanks.

[DMSmith]

I love the implication that Hillary Clinton's campaign was not a success. She may not have won, but she came damned close and went the distance against an amazing political phenom! It's amazing when these guys are so out of it that they have to infer she was an abject failure - as they will be this November.

[SgtLucifer]

Oh my Gawd!!! Another Democrat with balls.... what's going on here? Too bad their new head-man doesn't have any.

[260Parkway]

I do believe he can spare a slither and give it to you since that's all you'd probably need.

[buckygreen]

GOP: Mass murder, torture, war crimes, treason. Yeah I'd say dirtbags is definitely an insult to dirt.

[torrrep]

Mass murder: false
Torture: false
War crimes: false
Treason: false

You're 0-4. No wonder you keep losing the game.

[MJCole]

Hey Torrep, maybe it's time for you to come out of the cave or off the turnup truck and find out what's been going on the past 7 years. Because there are specific examples of all of the above from (sp?) Hidathia - Mass Murder, Water boarding - Torture, War Crimes... hmmm the biggest... well the whole disaster in Iraq is a war crime, would extraordinary rendition be a war crime or torture? Treason don't even get me started... lets just say KBR and well Haliburton in General and uhm Blackwater and leave it at that. torrep, you must've been born yesterday.

[researcher]

they have the wealth they must be good at something

if the spineless demos ever wake up this election could get serious

dont bet in it they are comfortable were they are at

the repubs will eat obama alive with their racism and swift boating while the demos play fair and lose

soon they will have a blond doing to obama what a blond did to tenn ford.

fear is a greater motivator than nice

the industrial military complex owns the media

they will have most americans looking for terrorists under their beds every night like they had their parents looking for commies.

and the fat cats get richer making war products while the middle class look for terrorists under their beds

[Bademus]

You mean Paul "eggheads and African Americans" Begala?

[BADEN]

Again - ANOTHER reminder of Professional Politics is NOT a form of government, no matter HOW much the Clintonians want to play it that way.

I prefer "Ugly Bags of Mostly Water" for ALL political shills that have aided and abetted the decline of the United States through "Southern Strategy" politics - BURN THE VILLAGE TO SAVE IT.

[CarbonDate]

These guys are so enamored of how witty they are. It's really kind of cute.

[Cookie100]

Hypocrites!! They say whatever they want. That Brad (Repugnican strategist, an oxymoron) on MSNBC calls 10's of millions of Obama supporters, Obamanations, as in, abomination, nice huh.
That's just how he refers to millions of American taxpayers. MSNBC: [e-mail], subject: To the editor.

I'd appreciate having their advertisers know that we taxpayers are NOT abominations,
Thank you.

[rosal]

The corporate own media is part of the dirtbags. That's why they get along so well. Repugs and the media, bought and paid off by corporate dirtbags.

[indypete]

When repubs do it, it's fine and dandy, when dems do it, it's the end of the world. Haven't you read the manual?