FUN WITH NEXIS

By sheer coincidence, this was the Carville-st, Matalin-est weekend in some time. Most notably the bipartisan couple appeared on "Meet the Press" to discuss the election results. Carville -- you must have heard by now -- cracked a raw egg on his own rather egg-like forehead. Carville had boldly predicted a big Kerry win on the show in week's past, and so long as he had figurative egg on his face, literal egg was not such a big deal. Nor much of a surprise, when you recall his wastebasket hat from the 2002 midterms. Carville had already been publicly wringing his hands about the future of his party, not to mention has been front-and-center trying to rationalize John Kerry's loss. When Vice President Cheney made an unexpected trip to the hospital this weekend, Matalin stepped in as his unofficial spokesperson, as she often does. I've also been watching their short-lived, often intriguing but ultimately disappointing, Soderbergh/Clooney-produced HBO series, "K Street."

These two have been ubiquitous since 1992, when even I as a politically dim young teenager knew who James Carville and Mary Matalin were. (Back when he was the winner and she was the loser. Boy how things have changed.) Remember that godawful Michael Keaton/Geena Davis (not to mention Christopher Reeve and Ernie Hudson) movie "Speechless"? Uh, me neither. All of which got me wondering: What's the first newspaper article to mention these two at the same time, either accidentally or informedly? I fired up Nexis, which returned this bit from a now-defunct "Charlotte's Web" gossip column in the March 8, 1991 edition of the Washington Times:

Just hanging out?

Well, gang, apparently there just aren't enough cute guys in the Republican Party to keep Mary Matalin, chief of staff at the Republican National Committee, in dates.

Lotsa sightings of Mary and James Carville, a 46-year-old never-married big-time Democratic political consultant with offices in Washington and Atlanta (and various other spots around the nation), recently have been reported to the Web.

Alas, Mary wouldn't comment on the couple's alleged item status.

But she sure likes Jim's company: "I find him an incredibly interesting man and a first-rate professional in a business I adore more than anything else, and that provides lots of opportunities for hanging out," Miss Matalin said.

Now I know and so do you. And aren't you glad you did? Well, aren't you?

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posted by WWB at 3:25 PM |