When Democratic strategist James Carville and Republican strategist Mary Matalin describe the Thanksgivings they spend at their place in the Shenandoah Valley, it sounds like a cozy three days filled with family, friends, and of course, food. “The traditional stuff,” Matalin explained. “With a little updated vegetarian, and a sideshow of Cajun madness.”
The couple ships up chef Paul Prudhomm‘s gumbo and jambalaya, from their current hometown of New Orleans. There’s shrimp remoulade and sometimes stone crabs, Matalin prepares sage potatoes, while Carville does his mother’s caesar salad. And since there are always guests (this year’s include Luke Russert and his mom, Maureen Orth) they do turkey, too. Though it’s the Cajun food that’s Carville’s favorite. “You can take the Matalin-Carvilles out of New Orleans, you just can’t take the New Orleans out of the Matalin-Carvilles,” he said.
The political power couple has now been married for 18 years, despite their very opposite political views. They recently brought Washington down to New Orleans by hosting the Bipartisan Policy Center’s annual political summit. It was an effort to take the “poison out of partisanship,” Carville explained. “It’s not necessary to take the partisanship out of partisanship,” he continued. “Sometimes you have to look at people beyond their political affiliation, we are all more than political.”
And that’s what the couple has done with their marriage. They often don’t talk politics. When they do come to an impasse (which is not often, Matalin said), they sit down and start with the things that they agree on and work from there. “We don’t have the luxury of walking away from a conversation,” she said.
And, of course, they’ve just learned to love things about the other. “Here’s a good one, he really does not like animals…I just went and got another shelter dog, I’ve got all kinds of cats from the street, some of them are feral, I’ve got two rats, I’ve got four birds and he just walks through the house and he’s like, ‘ugh,’ and they are all over the kitchen,” Matalin said. “[But] that’s who I am, I save dogs, what can I say,” she shrugged.
