Smile and put on a happy face!

The Washington Prowler says there's some grumbling in the ranks about DNC Chairman Terry "I got rich as a political fundraiser" McAuliffe:

Gov. Gray Davis may not have been the biggest loser in the California recall. Some Democratic National Committee members are calling for DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe to explain his odd behavior in the days leading up to Tuesday's election debacle.

McAuliffe appeared on cable news channels and gave print interviews citing DNC internal polling data that showed the recall election too close to call. He also claimed that he had numbers indicating Democrats would emerge unscathed from the election. He also claimed that even if Arnold Schwarzenegger did win, he'd do so with fewer votes than Davis would receive from voters opposed to his recall in the first place. In fact, Schwarzenegger outpaced Davis by more than 100,000 votes.

"I don't know where the hell McAuliffe got his info, but he was treating it like sacred writ, and it was just trash," says a California Democratic Party official in Los Angeles. "I know he likes to blow a lot of sunshine up peoples' behinds, but this was just embarrassing for us."

Politicos always whistle past the graveyard - that doesn't seem too egregious.

"We're getting tired of his shtick," says a DNC donor in New York. "He's been telling us how we're doing great in raising money for the convention in Boston, but there are more than a few of us who don't believe it. On the ground, we're hearing that we aren't raising much of anything to pay for the convention."

Now that could be embarrassing. Maybe they could have it in the street and prove their caring natures by inviting the homeless to party down?

More in the article about Howie Dean's nervousness about releasing the records of his stint as governor in Vermont and the troubles in Weasley Clark's campaign organization - it seems they kicked out all the "Draft Clark" types in favor of Clinton political hacks and spinners. You can get a load of the angst over at the old Draft Clark web sites like this:

By the time you read these words, the bell will be tolling for Wesley Clark's candidacy. It will be clear across the country that the campaign of Wesley Clark is nothing more than the Gore campaign with a better candidate - this will mean that activists, the people who can create a field organization that can win Iowa and New Hampshire, will know that this campaign is nothing more than a media creation.

I wondered how long it would take before they noticed the emperor had no pants.