Word: begala
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...WALKS IN A SOFT DRIZZLE TO his car next to the campaign headquarters in Little Rock, George Stephanopoulos hardly seems like a major player in any drama -- much less a presidential succession. Described by his colleague and close friend Paul Begala as a guy "well over four feet tall slumming in a jeans jacket with an MTV haircut," he has, at 31, leaped ahead of his elders to be at the red-hot center of the Clinton universe. While everyone knows who he is -- his face is now beamed round the world as transition communications director -- it is hard...
Lindsey's virtue is that he understands the centripetal nature of power -- that to get to the core of it, you have to almost disappear. Lindsey is everywhere and nowhere at the same time. "He's like oxygen," says Clinton strategist Paul Begala. "You can't see him, and you can't live without him." After years of his being at Clinton's side -- Lindsey was the presidential candidate's first traveling companion when the two trekked anonymously through airports, carrying their own bags -- there is practically nothing in print about him. He shuns interviews and does...
...everything and remembers what everyone said and when they said it. "He's the tape recorder running when the deal is being cut," says an aide. On the campaign plane, he was known as "the Enforcer" for gently policing the quotes from staff members in the morning papers. When Begala once referred to President Bush's rear end ("If he wants to debate, he can get his butt up to Michigan"), it was Lindsey who told him to get out of macho overdrive...
...East Rutherford, New Jersey: Before Clinton spoke at a star- studded rally at the Meadowlands, aides told the press Hillary would go by herself to the final rally of the evening at the Garden State Racetrack in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Strategist Paul Begala had tried to lay down the law: "Governor," he told Clinton, "your voice is gone. Hillary can do it." But no one could dissuade Clinton. Pumped up after giving an eight-minute speech, with his voice hoarse but not cracking, Clinton told Begala, "I want to go to the racetrack thing. I won't talk...
...flight attendant announced, "I want to welcome you aboard the final flight of the day aboard Air Elvis." Begala exuded confidence that even if Clinton were to lose all six toss-up states, he would still prevail in the Electoral College. Then Begala mentioned Return to Earth, the autobiography in which astronaut Buzz Aldrin discussed his emotional problems after he left NASA. Referring to Aldrin, Begala said, "What do you do when you achieve your life's ambition at age 35?" Begala, 31, had just helped elect the President...