With Dignity: John Kerry has missed, it seems, his last opportunity to withdraw from the Democratic nomination race with a scrap of dignity left:

Looking to jump-start his presidential bid, Democrat John Kerry has loaned his campaign $850,000 and is mortgaging his family home in Boston to provide a future infusion of cash.

This might be a scrappy move . . . if he were in a close race with Dean. But some national polls put Kerry in a statistical dead heat with Al Sharpton and Carol Moseley Braun. He's obviously not in the first tier of candidates anymore. In a state like New Hampshire, very much in the greater Boston media sphere, Kerry is still barely competitive -- and then only because he has poured money into the state. Even if he does pull out a respectable finish in New Hampshire (losing to Dean by a margin greater than five points will be a big loss), his campaign will be unable to put together any serious effort elsewhere as the primaries begin to come one after another.

Look at it this way: If I were John Kerry, and I had just come from behind to thrash Dean in New Hampshire, and I need some quick cash to tide me over until the victory buzz shows up in campaign contributions, then maybe I'd put the house in hock and look under the cushions for some extra coins. But making such a desperate move a month before the N.H. primary? That's like having vultures following your campaign bus from Manchester to Portsmouth.

More: Today's Boston Globe story is chock-a-block with wishful-thinking quotes from Kerry's staff, including some to the effect that the campaign is pushing this news hard, since it demonstrates Kerry's "commitment" for the long haul.