by Judi Mcleod
May 11, 2004
Predicting certain victory for the Democrats, political organizer, strategist and CNN Crossfire co-host James Carville harshly criticized american soldiers in Iraq during a speech delivered in Toronto Monday night.
addressing a fundraising dinner organized by the UJa Federation, Canada’s largest Jewish lobbying organization, Carville centered out american troops in Iraq for criticism.
Recent lurid revelations of sometimes savage mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. military personnel, he said, make a central difference between this (presidential) campaign and those before.
"These soldiers were not trained," said Carville of the U.S. guards who have been shown in photos as they subject their captives to psychological humiliation and grotesque physical abuse, "They were put into a situation that was almost designed to fail…This is a symptom of a larger disease."
He blamed a U.S. administration that, he said, went marching off to war with almost no idea of what it planned to do afterward.
In another era, his delivery style would have been compared to Benedict arnold. as it was, he was described in the fourth paragraph of a Toronto Star story under the byline of Oakland Ross as having a "clean-shaven pate" with a "lean figure" and as the bearer of an "intense gaze" and "heavy Louisiana twang" familiar to anyone who has followed U.S. national politics for the past decade.
One wouldn’t have to ponder long the choice of the UJa in bringing the anti-american troops Carville to town for a major fundraising dinner.
While on american turf, Carville finds acclaim as the man who masterminded Bill Clinton’s rise to the oval office in 1992; he’s also had a longtime finger in the Canadian political pie. James Carville worked as a paid political consultant to the Liberal Party of Canada.
If the "Ragin’ Cajun" feels any remorse that the same Canadian Liberal Party is currently under the cloud of a multi-million dollar sponsorship scandal, he made no mention of it at the UJa Federation dinner.
according to the prosaic Ross, it isn’t only his job as co-host of CNN’s Crossfire, but "frequent and lucrative speaking engagements across the country" that makes Carville remain among the most recognizable faces of Democratic politics in his country.
"He won’t say how lucrative," Ross lamented.
"My speaking fee? You gotta call my agent. If he tells you, I’ll fire him," he quoted Carville in the Star.
Carville, somewhat arrogantly, touts himself as Canada’s "most vocal defender". He lavished praise upon this country and he spoke glowingly of Toronto in particular.
although he avoided stepping into the realm of where the Canadian federal election might be going, he did indulge on blaming the U.S. for ignorance of its northern neighbour, charging that it is not an unvarying phenomenon. "I think, the closer you get to the border, there’s more interest."
Carville sang the same "I-love-Canada" tune in a Crossfire segment on Nov. 25, 2002, part of which revolved around the remarks made by then Prime Minister Jean Chretien’s former Director of Communications, Francoise Ducros. Ducros was overheard at the NaTO summit in Prague describing President Bush as a "moron".
Carville defended Canada in the debate, saying Ducros’ comments were no big deal.
"and defend us, he did," wrote Canada Free Press columnist arthur Weinreb. "While making his point that many americans had called Bush worse, Carville used expressions such as `I love Canada’ or derivatives thereof six times."
Weinreb pointed out how the "Ragin’ Cajun’s" picture made the front page of the National Post the next day with the caption, "Former spin doctor defends Canada’s honour on CNN".
"Barbara Walters was severely criticized in 1997 for an interview she did with andrew Lloyd Webber prior to the opening of his play, Sunset Boulevard. Walters heaped praise on Lloyd Webber without disclosing the fact that she had invested $10,000 in the play.
"Carville, like Walters, should have disclosed his financial relationship. James Carville was not defending Canada’s honour as the National Post put it--he was defending a paying client," Weinreb wrote.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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