Though some may think of State Sen. Kim Brimer as a fat cat, he's really more of a cash cow. We're just now scouring over his latest campaign finance records, and we couldn't help but notice that the Tarrant County Republican has paid the firm of Bryan Eppstein, his long time political consultant, an astounding $94,423.62 since July. That brings Eppstein's haul from the Brimer campaign alone to nearly $150,000 since the beginning of the year.

Of course, the real question is, what exactly does Eppstein do for the money? (Besides having his clients at the Fort Worth firefighters union file losing lawsuits against challenger Wendy Davis.) The Brimer campaign has been chided here and elsewhere for being lazy and out-of-touch. How much worse would the campaign be without the glorious Eppstein running the show?

Now, I've been told that Eppstein handles more day-to-day campaign functions than the average consultant and will write the checks for stuff like direct mail, advertising and research. Of course, Brimer already has a campaign manager named Jarod Cox who takes home $3,400 a month from the campaign. What does he do? And does anyone over there know about the internets?

Finally, can someone explain why Brimer was spending $694 of his monthly campaign money on a car lease with GMAC -- when he's not in the homestretch of a hotly contested campaign? Then, when he's fighting for political life, he suddenly doesn't need a car? On his most recent campaign finance reports, I can't find any more lease payments, but I do spot them on several others before this latest. (To do it yourself, check out here or here and run a search for the word "lease." Then do the same thing here.)

I hate to be cynical (kind of a lie?) but did Brimer merely stop using campaign money to pay for his car, because he didn't want the Davis camp to question his spending? Or, at this point, does he need every cent he can get?