The Fundraising Blues

We got to hear a lot of rumbling and mumbling about Howard Dean and the job he's doing at the DNC over this past weekend. According to a report in Business Week, the DNC under Dean has done a remarkably underwhelming job of fundraising:

According to the Federal Election Commission, the DNC raised $14.1 million in the first quarter of 2005, vs. the Republican National Committee's $32.3 million. Dean drew about 20,000 new donors, while his rivals picked up 68,200. The bottom line: Republicans have $26.2 million in the bank vs. $7.2 million for the Dems.

Some of the usual suspects derided that report yesterday. Lo and behold, what do we see developing today? Three top fundraisers at the Democratic National Committee have resigned at a time when its chairman, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, has come under fire from fellow Democrats for controversial comments and his Republican counterpart has raised more than twice as much money.

Could it be that indeed where there is smoke there is in fact fire?