Gag me with a Spoon

Washington Post 9/10/04: John Kerry, loose after his win in January's New Hampshire Democratic primary, tosses a football around his campaign plane as adviser Bob Shrum looks on. (Kevin Lamarque -- Reuters)

From a link I found today on Huffington Post:

The two biggest beneficiaries of the 2004 elections were media consultants for the presidential campaigns of President Bush and Democratic Sen. John Kerry. Maverick Media, led by Mark McKinnon, ran the media campaign for Bush and the Republican National Committee for a total cost of $177 million. Riverfront Media, led by consultant Bob Shrum, was paid $150 million to run the media campaign for Kerry and the Democratic National Committee. (emphisis mine)

Jesus H Christ. All of those 25 dollar checks that I sent Kerry, Bob the "loser loser loser" (actually as you see below there should be 8 "losers") Shrum and Co. pocket 150 million for brilliant ideas like not responding right away to the Swift Boat attacks?

Here is what Wikipedia has to say about Shrum:

Commentators often point out a "curse" associated with the presidential campaigns that he runs since he has yet to claim victory for any of his candidates in over eight presidential elections.[2] Other insiders point to Shrum's involvement in the Kerry campaign as detrimental, citing that Shrum (and his firm's partners) will be getting a $5 million cut for Kerry's media buys (another $3 million will go to other media firms used by the campaign)which likely tainted his advice [3]. Interestingly, during Kerry's improbable comeback during the Iowa caucuses in fall of 2003, Shrum was on a 10-day vacation in France. (once again emphisis mine)

So kids what have we learned? Bob Shrum really needs to spend a lot more time in France....

Update: I decided to cross posted this on Daily Kos. I have only posted there a couple of times, but Kos spends a whole chapter in his book Crashing the Gates on the horrible consultants of the Democratic party. There have been some interesting comments so far. This one by Joseph K shocked even me- and I thought nothing about Shrum could anymore:

in talking about the smackdown Clinton gave Wallace on fox -- he actually defended Wallace and said that Wallace was -- get this ... fair and balanced and didn't deserve the smackdown that Clinton gave him

i too cringe everytime i see shrum on -- and the reason i cringe ... is the idea that all those people that don't know any better -- actually are made to think that shrum represents the Democratic party

shrum represents shrum -- and i hope that he is kicked to the curb of the democratic party with the likes of lieberman