BIG POLITICAL NEWS:

Democrats can start winning again: Bob Shrum is retiring:

Bob Shrum, one of the dominant Democratic political strategists and speechwriters of the last three decades, said Wednesday that he was ending his formal consulting career and moving to New York, where he would write and teach at New York University as a senior fellow.

"I wanted to reflect on what I’ve done, not just keep doing it," Mr. Shrum, 61, said in an interview. "And I wanted to draw lessons from what I’d seen and draw implications for the future."

He leaves Washington with a mixed record, having served as an adviser on 26 winning Senate campaigns, perhaps more than any other consultant, but also eight losing presidential campaigns, which may also stand as a record.

Mr. Shrum was a lead adviser to Senator John Kerry’s presidential campaign, where he was sometimes a divisive figure and where he occasionally drew more attention from reporters than his candidate did. He was widely criticized as failing to develop a clean, consistent message.

"No one will believe this, but there is a reasonable chance that I would have done this had Senator Kerry won," Mr. Shrum said of ending his formal work as a consultant. "I didn’t want to go to the White House or lobby."

You’re right: we don’t believe it.

GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE DEPARTMENT: From Jesse Taylor:"Happy New Year! The best new development of 2005: Bob Shrum’s retiring It’s amazing that whatever insidious powers of mind control he had over Democratic candidates never extended to the American people."