PAUL BEGALA

I try hard to be a good Catholic.

I used to go in at 5:30 or 6:00 so I could run.

So one important lesson of Vietnam is, the first casualty of an unwise and unjust war are the American troops called on to fight it. Their service should be honored.

Again and again, I've seen Bush turn a blind eye as his henchmen have leveled zealous attacks against his political enemies - assaults which the president himself has sometimes directly encouraged.

See, I think if it just became who's sleeping with whom, then there's no reason to prefer one party over the other, 'cause the truth is we're all sinners.

Bush began helping Enron in the eighties.

Defining the terms of the debate generally dictates who's gonna' win it.

I'm very sunny. You know, I'm always optimistic.

If it was about lying under oath - we actually know that Clinton certainly was deceptive, as most people would be about their sex lives - but, in fact, he did not lie.

I grew up in Tom DeLay's district.

I mean, for all of his faults and the troubles in his marriage, Bill Clinton is still married to a girl he met in the library 25 years ago at school. Can we say that about many of our other leaders today in America, including on the right wing?

I'm a Catholic, but I used to love going to Vacation Bible School with my fundamentalist friends.

It must kill George Bush that John McCain is the most popular and Beloved Republican in America.

I didn't spend a lot of time on national security the American people will be glad to know.

It seems to me the American people never really forgave the Democrats for being right about Vietnam.

This gets back to the fundamental lesson of political survival that Bill Clinton taught me, which is if you make it about the American people's lives instead of your life, you're going to be okay.

Bill and Hillary Clinton are the most investigated couple in American history - now the most thoroughly exonerated couple in American history.

There's the great line: the definition of a liberal is someone who's afraid to take their own side in a fight. And that's my problem with my fellow liberals.

One of the problems we saw in the last presidential election in our party is that our nominee, while winning the election, which we ought never to forget, often lost sight of the difference between strategy and tactics.

I was the guy that told Bill Clinton he was going to win. I had gotten the final polling numbers. He had a comfortable lead. He was not going to lose.

I don't like being a voyeur, looking into other people's marriages.

Politics is show business for ugly people.

It taught me that Clinton's instinct to make this about your life as a citizen, rather than his as a human being, was the right answer to these things.

Most politicians, when they meet with a guy like me, or a guy like Carville, tell you about how they can win.

Never interrupt your opponent when he's destroying himself.