CSI--CAMBRIDGE:

Office politics (Thomas Oliphant, September 19, 2004, Boston Globe)

JOHN KERRY gave a more than decent account of himself in Michigan last week in an important oration about the economy. But several new members of his campaign staff thought it more important to step all over his message and promote themselves as the new bosses of the effort.

Later in the week, Kerry was even more forceful and effective in Nevada as he discussed the murderous mess in Iraq. But again, his campaign's Narcissism Caucus got between Kerry and the public by spinning the political press into glowing accounts of their campaign coup.

All this madness began unfolding while the Bush campaign was revving up its attack machine in New York. Two of the original promoters of firings at the top included onetime Clinton advisers James Carville and Paul Begala, the latter having almost but not quite come aboard last spring. The effort reached its public peak when CNN anchor Judy Woodruff, without disclosing the basis for her question, confronted senior Kerry adviser Jeanne Shaheen with "reports" of a huge shakeup and asked her if the campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill and top consultant Bob Shrum were about to be fired.

Though she was ambushed that day at the end of August, Shaheen's quick-thinking answer -- there is no change -- has stood up ever since. According to Kerry, the boss of his campaign is Cahill, and she and Shrum (along with the partners in his firm, Tad Devine and Mike Donilan) supply its strategic direction.

That's not the story that surfaced this week from recent arrivals who claimed they had taken over Kerry's daily communication and organization and through them the campaign.

So begins the autopsy season.

MORE:
-Kerry in chaos as 'Curse of Shrum' strikes (ALEX MASSIE, 9/19/04, Scotland on Sunday)

DEMOCRAT challenger John Kerry’s election campaign is in turmoil. The presidential hopeful is in trouble and is running out of time, while President George W Bush presses ahead in the polls.

In a desperate attempt to claw back the slide, Kerry decided to revamp his team by bringing in veteran Clinton operatives such as Joe Lockhart, John Sasso, Michael Whouley and Mike McCurry to oversee key parts of the campaign.

But the move has caused more division and chaos in the campaign and the arrival of the Clinton team means Kerry’s original campaign strategist, Bob Shrum, has seen his influence diminished.

In Democrat circles they are beginning to talk about "the Curse of Shrum".

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 19, 2004 9:04 AM