I was told to wear a tie, so I did. But when James Carville – the loud, loud Cajun politico introduced as “the winningest domestic campaign manager of all time” – took the stage, he was wearing blue jeans, white shoes and a green mock-turtleneck.

Off came the tie.

After the speech, in a one-on-one interview backstage, off came the gloves.

Q: Let’s start in the Middle East. If Ehud Barak (whose 1999 campaign Carville managed) had beaten Ariel Sharon in the last prime ministerial elections, would things be different in the region right now?

CARVILLE: Certainly I think Barak and Clinton both knew that something like this was possible, that it was a tinderbox, and that the peace agreement could have had a staying effect. There’s a lot of my friends in Israel — I have an office in Tel Aviv — I’m concerned about Israel, and it really needs the United States now and in the coming years.

Q: When you were working for (Greek Prime Minister) Constantine Mitsotakis, you said: “In most foreign campaigns, the party of the right is, like, twice as liberal as the Democratic Party.” Does that mean the Democrats are as far to the left as you’ll go in America?

CARVILLE: No, I was trying to make a point. The American division of right and left is kind of amorphous in foreign campaigns. A lot of times the right’s party is caught up in questions of nationalism, you know. In new democracies left might have ties to the Communists, you know what I mean?

Q: So you would rule out working for the Greens? Or the Socialists, if they were viable?

CARVILLE: I think Ralph Nader is the biggest liar in American politics when he said it didn’t matter who was president. (Laughs) You know, I don’t want to say I’d rule it out. Generally, I am economically liberal, but I am socially more conservative.

Q: How so?

CARVILLE: Oh, I think that family breakups are taking a big toll on America.

Q: What would you do to combat that?

CARVILLE: Actually, I have a proposal, but I’m not going to bore you with it right now. I would prefer people who had chosen a divorce could be aware of the consequences of it.

Q: Let’s talk about tonight. How much did you make on this speech for instance?

CARVILLE: You know what, I don’t know.

Q: No idea at all?

CARVILLE: Naw, I have an agent, they give me a thing and I show up.

Q: Do you have a feeling if it was worth it or not?

CARVILLE: Well, yeah, it was fine.

Q: What’s with “Serpenthead?” What does that mean?

CARVILLE: My wife calls me that.

Q: Why?

CARVILLE: (Scowls.) ‘Cause I look like a snake, I don’t know.

Q: This goes off something you said in your speech. You said you “wouldn’t piss down Jerry Falwell’s throat if his heart was on fire.” I’m wondering if there ever would be an occasion in which you would piss down Jerry Falwell’s throat.

CARVILLE: Yeah, if he found it distasteful.

Q: Why did you get kicked out of Louisiana State University?

CARVILLE: Which time? I flunked out.

Q: You just came back because you wanted to?

CARVILLE: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Beat working. I just flunked out. I was a terrible student.

Q: Took you what, eight years?

CARVILLE: I started in ’62, I got out in ’73. I was in the Marines, then I went to law school.

Q: Let me ask you a question about LSU.

CARVILLE: Shoot.

Q: They pretty much got killed by Florida.

CARVILLE: They got — they got the shit beat out of them.

Q: — they got destroyed by Tennessee —

CARVILLE: It’s kind of like, oh how would I know? What happened to your offense against Ohio State?

Q: I mean, really, do they have a chance against anybody in the Southeastern Conference this year?

CARVILLE: Yeah, they play Kentucky. They’ll beat Kentucky.

Q: Well, that’s my state, but I’m not a Kentucky f —

CARVILLE: Oh, I lived in Kentucky, too. I did (former Gov.) Wallace Wilkinson’s race in 1987.

Q: Oh boy. We call him “the snake,” too.

CARVILLE: Yeah, well. One reporter in Georgia said if he sees James Carville sleeping on a rock on a warm day, his first inclination is to hit him with a stick.

Q: You’re good friends with Clinton while he’s president but at the same time you’re working foreign campaigns: Honduras, Ecuador, Brazil, Greece, Israel, Argentina. Were there concerns that you were privy to sensitive information that you might go repeating?

CARVILLE: There isn’t a lot of sensitive information in Honduras.

Q: I mean that you knew from Clinton that you might tell the Israelis or the Argentinians that they weren’t supposed to know?

CARVILLE: No. No, I stayed away from that. The people I was working for were not anti-American.

Q: One last question: What was the worst part of the speech tonight?

CARVILLE: (pauses) Um, well, I guess the Q and A actually was better than the speech. What struck me was that most of the time at a college campus when people line up at the microphone, you usually get speeches, not questions. Everybody asked a question tonight, which was very unusual.

Q: Any colleges where that isn’t true?

CARVILLE: Every one I’ve been to. (I laugh.) I mean, you know, this guy gets up and like, “I am a candidate for secretary treasurer, you know, and we are very concerned about the pollution, the lead in the water, whatever.”

I actually like doing this kind of thing, particularly with young people. Who wouldn’t like to sit up there with 700 young people cheering and clapping for him, sure?

Q: Thanks. Glad NU did better tonight than we did against Ohio State.

CARVILLE: So, you in journalism?

Q: No — well, sort of. But I work for the paper, I’m an editor over there.

CARVILLE: Well, you’re annoying enough to be a journalist.

Carville then grabbed my head and shook me. I’m told that means the interview went well. nyou