We all have our own relationship deal breakers: Rude to the waitstaff? Socks with sandals? Criminal record? When it comes to dating in D.C., siding across the aisle may as well be all of the above.
But there is hope, star-crossed lovers! Just look at James Carville and Mary Matalin, who literally wrote the book on making an interparty marriage work. The political commentators will speak on Love & War: 20 Years, Three Presidents, Two Daughters and One Louisiana Home (Blue Rider Press, $29) at the National Press Club on Saturday, January 11 at 11 a.m.
Two presidential campaigns, both alike in dignity, in fair 1992, where we lay our scene: Carville and Matalin met while they were working for candidates Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush, respectively. They married the next year, and 20 years later are still happily together.
Love & War is a couples memoir on both the dynamics of Carville’s and Matalin’s famous relationship and the changing political climate since they married. Matalin writes more about “issues of family, faith, and foreign enemies,” while Carville discusses highs and lows of the last three presidents, but how his love for his wife trumps it all. The two left D.C. in 2008 to move to Carville’s hometown of New Orleans, so they also touch on their Hurricane Katrina rebuilding efforts. It’s a symbol, they say, of post-partisan work ready to be done.
The back-and-forth narration of Love & War adds a conversational tone to their story. And there is plenty of good-natured teasing: “Despite our similar shoot-the-moon, go-big-or-go-home tendencies on everything else, when it comes to money, James doesn’t believe in energetic movement. Once it comes in, he never wants it to go out. Unless it’s your tax money,” Matalin writes. Bet he never empties the dishwasher either.
Carville was a litigator, Marine Corporal, and high school teacher before training in one of the first political consulting firms. He then became a lead strategist for Clinton’s first presidential run, coining the phrase, “it’s the economy, stupid.” He was Tucker Carlson’s cohost on CNN’s original “Crossfire” program, and now teaches political science at Tulane University and has a radio show, 60/20 Sports, with Luke Russert.
Matalin served in the Reagan and both Bush administrations. She is chief editor of Simon & Schuster’s conservative publishing imprint, and co-hosts the Both Sides Now radio show with Arianna Huffington.
Tickets are $10 for non-members of the Press Club and can be purchased online along with book copies. A signing will follow the discussion. No outside memorabilia or books will be signed.
