VIDEO: After Bush's Speech, Paul Begalia said that the President was a "High Functioning Moron".

Paul Begala, the television commentator and Democratic strategist who with James Carville propelled Bill Clinton to the presidency in 1992, knew he was about to get into trouble on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" show Thursday night with his description of President Bush.

He said as much as soon as he opened his mouth.

Still, with a panel that included Ed Rollins, the Republican strategist who ran Ronald Reagan's 1984 reelection campaign, he blurted it out:

I'm going to get in trouble. He's a high-functioning moron, and that's what Congress treats him as. Both parties.

To be sure, the panelists were egging each other on:

COOPER: "Watching the president last night give that speech, it was like watching him in Jackson Square in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. I mean, he did not seem to be there."

ROLLINS: "No, he wasn't there."

GLORIA BORGER: "He's not comfortable — "

COOPER: "He was physically there but — "