Long-time Democratic Campaign Strategist Tells All

By May 24, 2007 — -- There was a time when everyone wanted to be his friend.

Back in the early days of the 2004 presidential race, reporters dubbed it the "Shrum primary" -- because every candidate seemed to want to hire Democratic consultant Bob Shrum to provide strategy and guidance.

But after losing that campaign with Sen. John Kerry -- and with more than a half dozen previous races with losing Democratic presidential candidates -- Shrum said he knew he'd be forever known as "the black cat of American politics."

No surprise then that this time around, Shrum is working for no one. And he isn't holding back in criticizing a former client -- former Sen. John Edwards.

In a three-inch thick tome being published in June, "No Excuses: Concessions of a Serial Campaigner," Shrum recounts his time with George McGovern, Ted Kennedy, Richard Gephardt, Bob Kerrey, Al Gore and John Kerry.

Shrum calls Gore and Kerry "complex figures" who would have been good presidents. But it's the thrashing he gives John Edwards that really stands out.

Shrum writes that when he first met Edwards in 1998, when he was running for the U.S. Senate, he had "seldom encountered anyone with as many innate political gifts." He agreed to work on Edwards' Senate bid.

But he also says Edwards "didn't know much about the issues" and later in the book he calls Edwards "a Clinton who hadn't read the books."

Shrum also writes that he was troubled by an exchange he had with Edwards about homosexuals.

"What is your position, Mr. Edwards, on gay rights?" Shrum says he asked Edwards in 1998. Edwards' reply, according to Shrum, was: "I'm not comfortable around those people."

Shrum says he advised Edwards not to say that in public and to come up with a better answer, "a kind of generalized opposition to discrimination -- that he said he could live with in the state, while not undermining his future as a 'national' Democrat."

John Edwards' team disputes that account as an inaccurate representation of the conversation and a mischaracterization of Edwards' feelings about gay rights.