If Sally Bradshaw is the ludicrous scapegoat for a collective failed effort on the inside, Mike Murphy is the go-to outside man to blame.

Murphy, the head of Bush’s big-spending, nine-digit super PAC, Right to Rise, is being pummeled in predictable fashion right now by angry donors and others looking to cover their hides. It’s true that the longtime political consultant has found a knack in recent years for sidling up to whales. He was a lead strategist for former eBay CEO Meg Whitman’s failed $177 million bid for governor of California in 2010—another case in which a candidate obviously wasn’t going to win but decided to burn vast sums of cash anyway.

How much did Murphy get paid on commission in the great Bush money bonfire? “One Bush bundler” tells CNN that the figure was “a minimum of $14 million.” Murphy’s compensation is not publicly known, though, and he has responded to that estimation as “absolute bullshit.” Still, Murphy’s commission was likely disproportionate to his candidate’s performance, so long as he was paid above California’s minimum wage.