Jan. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Political memoirs are always plump with exaggeration. Grandiosity comes with the territory. In Terry McAuliffe's ``What a Party: My Life Among Democrats: Presidents, Candidates, Donors, Activists, Alligators and Other Wild Animals,'' there's a thin book inside a fat one crying to get out. Like its title, the reminiscences are overlong and too carefully vetted.

Still, it is satisfying to see the former Democratic National Committee chair take off the gloves and wax furious with Sen. John Kerry for blowing the 2004 campaign.

It's also satisfying to read an account by someone who loves the game so much. McAuliffe's enthusiasm for politics dates from age 14: His Dad was Onondaga party treasurer and the son was paving driveways to earn money for contributions to the campaigns of candidates he thought could make a difference.

``What a Party'' is, at least in part, a primer for young people asking why they should get involved and a reminder to reporters of why they climb on buses like schoolchildren in Iowa and New Hampshire well after they should have graduated to grown- up jobs.

McAuliffe made the Democratic machinery hum. While a dubious distinction to those of us who think money is the bane of both parties, in 2004 McAuliffe was the first Democratic Party chairman to raise more money than the GOP. He dragged its technology into the 21st century and handed over the gavel to Howard Dean with no debt and $4 million in the bank.

Best Friend Bill

But there'd be no book if McAuliffe wasn't basically an excitable Labrador puppy. Everyone is his friend, including his enemies. His best friend is Bill Clinton, who was the youngest ex-governor in U.S. history when they first met and Clinton asked the 23-year-old whiz kid -- he'd been finance chairman on the Carter-Mondale campaign -- for advice on his comeback.

Unsurprisingly, McAuliffe already has jumped on the Hillary- in-'08 bandwagon. Though McAuliffe seems to have spent more time alone with the Clintons than anyone save Chelsea, those reading the book for insights into that most mystifying of political marriages will have to look elsewhere.

Where the candor comes in is in attacking not just Republicans but the party's candidate in 2004, John Kerry.

What ticked off McAuliffe the most is that Kerry was hoarding money -- $15 million -- while Ohio was lost. He comes close to calling the campaign managers, if not their standard- bearer, liars for not revealing that they had the cash when it could have won some close Senate races if not the presidency. What were they saving it for? It was ``gross incompetence,'' he wrote, ``un-fucking-believable.''

Sucker Punches

Equally infuriating was Kerry's unwillingness to respond to the relentless sucker punches thrown by the opposition. For a scrapper like McAuliffe -- who tells a ripping tale of wrestling an alligator, whose jaw muscles carry a thousand pounds of pressure, for a $15,000 campaign contribution -- you return every blow. McAuliffe pounds Kerry for dodging the Swift Boat Veterans attacks; McAuliffe, for his part, punched back every chance he got.

When Matt Lauer asked the president, ``Can we win the war on terror?'' and Bush replied, ``I don't think you can win it,'' McAuliffe couldn't wait to get Kerry from Nantucket to a heartland location to respond -- but couldn't reach the candidate or anyone on his campaign staff. When he turned on the network news that night, he saw his nightmare come to life.

``There was John in the water with his Windsurfer,'' he writes, ``being asked if he could win the war on terror. `Absolutely,''' he said, continuing to sway in the breeze.

`Political Malpractice'

McAuliffe sums up Kerry's decision to back off criticism of Bush as one of the ``biggest acts of political malpractice in the history of American politics.''

It's remarkable that McAuliffe has a book at all in that party chairmen are backstairs people. As Bobby Riggs told Billie Jean King, you're supposed to ``stand in the alley and don't hit anything that doesn't hit you first.'' McAuliffe swung all the time and hit much of the time. Even when he missed, he had fun. It's enough to make you want to run for office.

``What a Party'' is published by Thomas Dunne Books (416 pages, $24.95).

(Margaret Carlson is a columnist for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own.)

To contact the writer of this column: Margaret Carlson in Washington at carlson3@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: January 23, 2007 00:01 EST