It was my first $1,000-a-plate Democratic fund-raiser (courtesy of a friend), and all I got was mashed potatoes, spinach, and water.

The setting: Ron Burkle's Beverly Hills mansion. The problem: too many people -- 1,500 -- who came to see John Kerry.

Organizers seemed overwhelmed by the turnout, which was a measure of the anti-Bush passion in liberal strongholds like this one. The March 30 event had originally been billed as "a meet-and-greet for a couple of hundred people," then it was redefined as a 750-person event with a performance by James Taylor. But twice that number signed up.