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More Dem nuts, this one a Brazile nut (from NY Post's Cindy Adams):

March 31, 2004 -- DONNA BRAZILE on Al Gore: "I enjoyed p- - - ing him off. But we now talk several times a month. I've stopped cussing him out."

Donna Brazile on Joe Lieberman: "Our Jewish friends were against his running because, they said, 'We don't want to draw attention to ourselves.' "

Donna Brazile on Al Sharpton: "He has the best one-liners. This candidacy thing advanced his media career. That's all he wants. His next gig's to be on TV."

Donna Brazile on Donna Brazile: "Girl, I've taken more s- - - than most people alive."

So who's Donna Brazile? The sweet as pie on the inside/tough as nails on the outside first black woman to head a presidential campaign. Born in New Orleans, her mother was a maid, father a janitor and "so poor we couldn't afford to get sick."

From Martin Luther King Jr. through Jesse Jackson, this eventual major player in U.S. politics became campaign manager for Gore.

Now a Georgetown University professor and CNN commentator, she sits on boards, heads her own firm a la D'Amato and Giuliani, makes a mean jambalaya and red beans and rice, and just delivered "Cooking With Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics" to Simon & Schuster. It launches June 2 in New York.

On Michael Dukakis: "My book's brutal about assessing his inept campaign. He actually fired me. I said to him, 'My kind of folks are workhorses. We don't get fired.' He fired me. At the Waldorf."

Colin Powell: "He told me, 'Don't give advice on race relations. Don't let people take you there. That deflects from your message. You don't have to talk about that. Let others do it.' "

Bill Clinton: "Brilliant. No better strategist. Me, I was always part of the clean-up crew. So, after Monica, when they hollered 'impeachment,' I went on the road to tell voters, 'We voted for him. We wanted him then . . . we still want him . . .' He was appreciative. He said thank you. The man knows how the game is played."

Condoleeza: "A loner. Lets nobody in."

Jesse Jackson: "He'll take issue with some things I say about him."

About paid political consultants: "Bloodsuckers! I trash them. It's not about the issues. It's about them. Their ads, their negative advertisements."

About back-stabbing author Richard Clarke: "Hey, when you're at the table you act one way. When you're kicked from that table you act another way."

Page 255 describes my staying so close on her tail at the convention that it ended up, "I treated Cindy like one of my staffers. She brought me food and we spent the day and night running around that big arena."

She tells the scenes behind the scenes:

* Like Gore unwilling to follow Clinton on radio because Bill sucked up all the airtime.

* Like the vice president's jealous reactions when she'd occasionally end up talking to the president.

* Like that time Al was on the dais left, Bill on the right, the room tilted and she had to get reporters to Al's side.

About the coming election: "Going to be so nasty."

During the summertime presidential conventions, bookstores will be up to their assets in political books. Hers, Clinton's, Bob Woodward's . . .