James Carville, the staunchly Democratic commentator married to Republican consultant Mary Matalin, says he has somewhat tempered his political views over the years.
"I do think that I’ve gotten more conservative in some ways as I’ve gotten older. … I became a little more conservative politically when I realized that once something gets written into law, once it’s in the bloodstream, it’s really hard to undo it. You’ve got to be careful before making big changes," he writes in
"Love & War: Twenty Years, Three Presidents, Two Daughters and One Louisiana Home," the couple's latest book,
reports Politico.
In their memoir, set for release Jan. 7, he power couple talks about how they have resolved their political differences and remained married since 1993.
In an
interview with Vogue, published online Thursday and on newsstands Monday, Carville and Matalin shared exclusive excerpts from the book, including one on how they fell in love.
"We were two longtime trench-warfare politicos who had more in common than most normal people, even though we happened to be true believers in diametrically opposing political philosophies. And then, like a bad random traffic accident, we found ourselves together at the same time that we were both lucky and hardworking enough to be chosen as campaign Pooh-Bahs in opposite camps in an epic battle for the presidency in 1992," Matalin writes.
"So a seemingly impossible romance between two oddballs became gussied up as the story of a modern-day Romeo and Juliet on the road to the White House. We didn’t encourage or discourage it; we just went with it."
In 2008, Carville and Matalin moved their family from Virginia to New Orleans. He is on the faculty of the department of political science at Tulane University, while she has been chief editor of Threshold Editions, a conservative publishing imprint at Simon & Schuster, since March 2005.
The relocation was part of the reason they left CNN earlier this year, where both had been contributors. But they still have plenty to say about any number of political issues and Washington topics.
Writing about the current Democratic Party, according to Politico, Carville says in the book, "I do think a valid critique of Democrats or liberals is that we seldom look at the world through the eyes of the dry cleaner or the guy with the lawn-mowing service.
About Dick Cheney, Matalin writes,"[If] you love him, you don't know even half of what is so cool about him. And if you don't adore him, I guess that's your loss, because you ate up all the toxic garbage about him without bothering to think things through or think for yourself."
Carville adds, "But whichever side you're on, the truth is he's not very upset about whatever you think. He's not losing any sleep over it."
As for the top 10 things they fight about, Matalin writes, "#6. The Iraq War. For a long time, it was number one or number two, but then it became a case of either shut up or move out."
The book reportedly ends with a section titled, "FAQ of the Future," which includes "What if Hillary runs?"
"We'll check back in another two decades," they write.
Related Stories:
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.