The American Spectator

Washington Prowler

p> LIVE FOR TODAY br> Much is being made of the sudden departure of Sen. Joe Lieberman 's chief fundraiser, Shari Yost . As word trickles out that Lieberman had a poor fundraising cycle, compared to other Democratic presidential hopefuls, Lieberman hasn't wasted any time filling the slot. It's expected that Tracy Sturman , an Al Gore fundraiser, will step in for the time being. /p>

The Lieberman camp is attempting to spin Yost's exist as more of a cost-cutting measure, but in reality it's all about a foundering campaign that waited too long to staff up and when it did staff up was not careful in how it paid out salaries.

For example, both of the Lieberman children who are on the campaign are earning six-figure salaries. While it's fairly common for candidates of all ilk to bring family on board, the Lieberman payouts were surprisingly excessive for a man who prides himself on watching the bottom line.

Lieberman pulled in about $5 million for the second quarter, but almost 50 percent of that money came in the last two weeks of June during a desperate passing of the hat via pleading e-mails and several fundraisers in California and Connecticut.

Lieberman is now being placed in the same category as Rep. Dick Gephardt, who also had a poor fundraising quarter. But unlike Gephardt, Lieberman isn't going around Washington begging for a second chance to prove himself. This is either a sign that Lieberman is confident his new team will perform for him, or maybe he's just given up.

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