“David Gergen doesn’t like this? David thinks it’s inappropriate? Gee, that’ll put me cold in my tracks. I think I’m going to stop.” James Carville seems angry and amused at the same time. Yelling into the phone, his already garbled Louisiana speech rendered nearly unintelligible by sarcasm, Carville describes how his plan to discredit Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr has been attacked by many in official Washington as irresponsible, even offensive. “The chattering class in Washington is all in an uproar about this,” he says, “and that tickles me to no end.”

Carville is right about one thing: The chattering class is in an uproar over his behavior, almost unanimous in the belief that he has finally spun out of control. In the days since Carville announced his intention to mount a public-relations campaign against Starr — a man he calls a “right-wing partisan Republican” on an ideological crusade to destroy the president — the sometime Clinton adviser has been assailed from all sides.