The $15 milllion furor.

It started with this item from the AP's Ron Fournier...

WASHINGTON - Democratic Party leaders said Wednesday they want to know why Sen. John Kerry ended his presidential campaign with more than $15 million in the bank, money that could have helped Democratic candidates across the country.

Naturally, Fournier's startling expose was very well sourced. Let's see, there was...

...Some, as in "Some said..."

...the ever-quotable Donna Brazile

...unnamed "Congressional Democrats and labor leaders..."

and "Three former Kerry campaign aides..." who were "...also demanding anonymity..."

So basically, there was Donna Brazile, the persistent self-promoter who insisted that "He's going to have to give some of it up for 2005 and beyond. The party will demand it." Which is kind of interesting, since the last campaign that Ms. Brazile managed, way back in 2000, was still sitting on about $6.5 million in April of 2004, when Al Gore finally decided to drain his Presidential coffers with donations to the DNC, DSCC and DCCC. Funny, I would have thought that there might have been a race or two in the 2002 cycle that could have used a buck or two...or maybe Brazile thought she'd have a job in 2004.

In fact, Gore was a big piker compared to Kerry, who doled out about $40 million while his campaign was still active to all of the above, plus a variety of state Party organizations and the Democratic Governors Association. It was more support, by a wide margin, than any Presidential nominee had ever given to other Party organizations.

I don't know how many campaigns Mr. Fournier has ever had to wrap up, but I've done quite a few, on a much smaller scale than a Presidential race, and I've never seen one, even a local one, that had all the bills in hand and paid off two weeks after the votes were counted. There's a reason that Kerry's last report isn't due for a month, and a reason that those 'final' reports are so often amended later.

No one knows how much money John Kerry will really have in his coffers after the final accounting, or what his plans are for any surplus. What we do know is his willingness to provide generous support to Democrats at every level is well established.

And, oh yeah.

We know that Donna Brazile should just shut up.