Carville Predicts Peace, Dem Sex Scandal and GOP Rift

Democratic political consultant James Carville has predicted good news to come out of Syria and Israel but bad news for both U.S. political parties.

“Internationally, I believe there will be a peace agreement between Israel and Syria in the next 18 months,” Carville wrote on CNN.com. “It is something that will be a priority for the incoming Obama administration.”

But he said that his party may be due for a damaging scandal. He said that Republicans have had the worst of sex scandals in recent years as they’ve been in the majority.

“Simple math and history point to the fact that the more elected officials a party has in office, the more likely its politicians will get caught up in some sort of scandal,” Carville wrote. “The current streak, however removed from President-elect Barack Obama, doesn’t bode well for Democrats in 2009.”

Republicans will face a graver concern, “a near catastrophic ideological rift,” Carville wrote.

“There is no obvious Republican leader on the horizon, and the party is caught between its Southern/talk-radio base and the rest of the country on whether they should oppose or cooperate with Obama’s administration,” he wrote.

“The combination of the lack of an obvious leader and the general political combustibility of the Republican Party will lead to a dangerous fissure that will plague it until the 2012 election cycle,” he added.