The American Spectator

Washington Prowler

p> SHRUM SERVICE br> Rumor in Washington has Democratic über political consultant Bob Shrum jumping off the presidential bandwagon of Sen. John Edwards , and hopping on board that of Sen. John Kerry . There is no apparent rift, but some insiders posit that Shrum feels less comfortable shaping a faux-centrist campaign like the one Edwards will have to run in 2004, and more comfortable with the standard liberal Democratic dogma of Kerry. /p>

"There was probably going to be some moving about by advisers as things shook out a bit after the election," says a Democratic consultant in Washington. "Then we got hammered, and there seemed to be a real shift in opinion that Democrats were going to have to move left and make a stand. Kerry is in good position to do that."

Shrum was a key player in the later years of the Clinton White House, advising the president in some of his most politically tenuous days during impeachment proceedings. During the 2000 presidential runup, Shrum was the most vocal Gore adviser pushing the candidate to pick Edwards as his running mate. But of the prospective presidential candidates, Kerry may be in the best position for some big momentum in the coming months. He's contracted with historian and Jimmy Carter biographer Douglas Brinkley, who'll write a biography of sorts on Kerry's experiences in Vietnam. And Kerry is expected to be a far more vocal critic of the Bush administration in his senior position in the Senate.

p> LEFTIST LOCK br> Over in the House, where Democratic candidates recruited by outgoing Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman

topics:
NATO, Africa