The American Spectator

Washington Prowler

p> KERRY'S CARVILLE-BEGALA br> Confirming what The Prowler reported last November, word leaked out earlier this week that über political consultant Bob Shrum was signing on as a media guru to Sen. John Kerry , walking away from Sen. John Edwards, whom he'd worked for in 1998 in Edwards' senatorial campaign, and whom he had been advising in the early days of his presidential run. /p>

Shrum, who has toiled for just about every major Democratic figure in the past 25 years, has ties to several of the 2004 presidential hopefuls. He worked for Rep. Dick Gephardt's 1988 presidential run, for Kerry's Senate race in 1996 and Edwards' '98 Senate run. Most recently he was Al Gore's main media guy in 2000, after serving as one of Bill Clinton's consiglieri during impeachment.

Shrum and Kerry have been mum about a deal -- Kerry, after spending the weekend at home in Washington meeting with select delegates attending the DNC's winter meeting, is now in California working on a tan and fundraising -- but Edwards campaign staffers were more than willing to leak word of the new partnership to reporters.

"We weren't willing to give Bob the kind of control he wanted over the message and the direction of the campaign," says an Edwards source. "No properly run campaign would give any one man that kind of control."

Translation: Shrum had a choice, didn't like the looks of the Edwards campaign, went with the team he felt comfortable with, and Edwards staffers are badmouthing him.

That would appear to be so, since he has signed on to a Kerry campaign apparatus that already has several highly paid and highly thought of media consultants on board for the long haul. Clearly Shrum wasn't looking for full control as much as he was looking for a good horse to ride to the finish line and a role he would feel comfortable in.

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Bill Clinton, NATO, Oil