Follow the money!

Can you still remember Carol Moseley Braun? Well Lynn Sweet at the Chicago Sun-Times has some interesting details on her quitting her big presidential campaign in Braun drops out, but wins anyway:

Braun campaign manager Patricia Ireland -- the former National Organization for Women president who was never able to energize the feminist community behind Braun -- started talking to Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi at the end of last week. Trippi turned her over to Dean senior adviser Jon Haber.

That means during Sunday's debate in Iowa, when Braun defended Dean after he was attacked by Al Sharpton for his lack of minority hirings while Vermont governor, Braun was already crafting her exit strategy with Dean.

By early this week, Ireland was in negotiations with Haber on the details of Braun's departure. Braun's issues: She has a big campaign debt, and the trickle of money she was getting would dry up once she quit the contest. Braun also wanted an understanding on what role she would play with the Dean team. Ireland and Haber sealed the deal Wednesday evening.

"We are going to help her with the debt," Haber told me. The debt tab could be in the neighborhood of some $300,000 and Dean's camp will help Braun raise the money to pay it off.

Braun will campaign for Dean three days of the week, with the Dean campaign picking up her travel expenses. Braun will become a Dean campaign consultant and will be paid about $20,000. Up to three of Braun's staffers, including Ireland, will be hired by the Dean campaign. In the short term, Braun will head to New Hampshire and South Carolina for the Dean campaign. A large number of Democratic voters in South Carolina, which holds its primary Feb. 3, are African-American.

I hope she got the money up front - Deano's checks may not be good real soon the way things are going!

But there's always an upside:

After Braun handed her baton to Dean in Iowa, she took off for Hollywood, Fla., where she was to be the paid keynote speaker at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration. I don't know how much she got for the appearance, but her presidential run may translate to bookings on the lecture circuit.

Now there's a true entrepreneur!

(Hat tip: Tim Graham)