Celeb Rag Shocker: Us's Exposé Exposé!

Klein "would chastise Kerry on the phone when he didn't like a speech, counseling both Kerry and me about what the candidate should say and what our strategy should be," down to the kind of health care plan the senator should propose, Shrum writes. There were "several long evenings at Joe's house where he importuned me with his ideas for the Kerry campaign."

Klein says Shrum is getting even for the columnist's criticism of him in an earlier book. "I never, ever give political advice to these people," he says. "I have issue arguments with them. If they ask how the horse race is going, I tell them."

Kerry once asked him if he should fire his first campaign manager, Jim Jordan, and Klein says he responded that he had no idea. He says that he pleads guilty to kicking around universal health care with Kerry but that he has been having such conversations with politicians, such as Hillary Clinton, for years.

Shrum also chides CNN commentator Paul Begala, saying the former Clinton White House aide not only let it be known that he was willing to step in as campaign manager, but wrote a memo to Kerry in which he "helped invent" a plan to concentrate on four issues: jobs, health care, oil and security (J-HOS for short). After the election, says Shrum, Begala criticized the campaign "for doing what he had originally recommended."

Begala, who told CNN viewers at the time that he was informally advising the campaign, says Kerry frequently called him to ask for advice and that he agreed to join the campaign under pressure from, among others, Bill Clinton -- but never got an offer. He says he never liked the emphasis on the four issues but as an outsider was trying to be diplomatic in critiquing the campaign's plan.

"Shrummy came up with this dopey J-HOS thing and my guilt here is that I didn't smack him and say 'that's the stupidest thing I ever heard' . . . If it makes Bob sleep better at night to pretend his failure in that campaign was somehow my responsibility, God bless him."

Howard Kurtz hosts CNN's weekly media program, "Reliable Sources."