Washington Wrap

Dotty Lynch, Douglas Kiker, Steve Chaggaris, Smita Kalokhe, and Joanna Schubert of The CBS News Political Unit have the latest from the nation's capital.

Now, while Bush's figure will certainly top any of the Democratic presidential wannabes – or, quite possibly, all nine of them combined – Howard Dean is once again creating a buzz. His aides say the campaign raised at least $6.4 million in the three-month reporting period that ends at midnight Monday. That second-quarter take brings his year-to-date total to $9 million and places Dean, once considered a long shot candidate, smack dab in the top tier of Democratic presidential contenders.

Dean's campaign reports it has raised $2.8 million in the last eight days alone , with 1,000 people making contributions. And Dean – whose supremacy as the king of Internet campaign in Campaign 2004 is well documented – raised over $2 million online, including a one-day take on Friday of $500,000. As the New York Times put it on Monday, Dean's online take leaves "little doubt there are now ways to solicit contributions other than the telephone calls and elaborate fund-raisers that are the stock and trade for most mainstream candidates."

Dean's campaign is hoping to bring the total closer to $6.5 million with a final-day blitz Monday, complete with a telethon-esque progress report that updates the total every half hour. (As of noon Monday, the site said contributions had topped $6.48 million – well on its way to topping its goal.)

None of the other campaigns had released their quarterly figures as of Monday at midday. But, as Steve Elmendorf, a top aide to Dick Gephardt, said of Dean's total: "He'll beat everybody."

Sen. Joe Lieberman sent out an "urgent" e-mail to supporters on Monday asking them to contribute online before the midnight deadline. The Hartford Courant reports that Lieberman had 300 volunteers working the phones this weekend in a last-minute sprint. The paper also reports that "a very real possibility the senator could finish sixth in this round," behind the other top tier candidates. (Last week, Lieberman's campaign has estimated his second-quarter take at $4 million.)

Last week, the AP reported that this quarter and that Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina was expecting between $4 million and $5 million. Gephardt's aides also put their expected total at close to $5 million. And, while his aides put the figure closer to $5 million last week for the AP, the Hartford Courant reports Monday that Sen. John Kerry expects to match or exceed the $7 million he raised in the first quarter. Sen. Bob Graham skipped the Democratic dinner on Saturday night in Florida to attend one in Tennessee where he hoped to pick up some out of state money.

The quarterly fundraising reports spawn a dizzying amount of spinning, underestimates and overestimates from the campaigns. As a result, some of the "estimates" need to be taken with a grain of journalistic salt. Last week, for example, Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi said the $6 million figure would be reached only "in my dreams."

Band of Brothers: John McCain, Bill Clinton and Mario Cuomo said nice things this weekend about John Kerry, Wesley Clark and Bob Graham respectively, and while they didn't exactly endorse their presidential candidacies, their campaigns are making the most of the kind words.

John McCain told the Boston Herald that fellow Vietnam vet John Kerry is in the position to rekindle the same kind of "magic" his campaign ignited in 2000. "He certainly can," McCain said. "He's smart, he's tough and he's experienced." McCain also was skeptical that Howard Dean could broaden his appeal beyond the "hard-core liberals" and criticized his attacks on Kerry as unfair.

McCain said that his campaign benefited from the pop culture of 2000 where "Saving Private Ryan" and "The Greatest Generation" helped generate interest his candidacy. "It's hard to know what the atmosphere is out there but I'm confident John Kerry can connect with people in the same way," McCain said.

Bill Clinton gave some words of encouragement to hometown boy, retired Gen. Wesley Clark, a Little Rock resident. Clinton told the AP that while he won't take sides in the Democratic Party, "I believe Wes, if he runs, would make a valuable contribution because he understands America's security challenges and domestic priorities. I believe he would make a good president."

Clark has spoken well of Clinton, saying the swift U.S. military victory in Iraq was due to battlefield tactics and technology that were developed during the Clinton years. A "Draft Clark" headquarters will open in New Hampshire over the July 4th weekend and Clark says he'll make a decision over the summer. Many Democrats view Clark as a formidable Vice-Presidential choice - especially for candidates who lack military and foreign policy credentials.

And, former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo praised his old DGA colleague Bob Graham at the Florida Democratic party dinner on Saturday night. According to the Tampa Tribune. Cuomo told reporters that he thinks that President Bush can be defeated in 2004 but that "you can't beat him with persona—he's well liked. You have to beat him with substance." And Graham, he believes, is a candidate of substance.

Cuomo said this wasn't an endorsement but said that Graham is the candidate who he knows best and that he was hoping that Graham would enter the race. He quoted his pal NY columnist Jimmy Breslin who wrote that Graham is "the most intelligent candidate in the race and the most knowledgeable."

New Senate Rule: No Stealing: It turns out the amount of items – historical or not – that have disappeared from the U.S. Senate has become a major problem. It's enough of an issue problem that the Senate had to pass a bill Friday basically telling Senators and others not to steal.

The bill was drafted by Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and prohibits "members of the Senate and other persons from removing art and historic objects from the Senate wing of the Capitol and Senate office buildings for personal use."

Apparently one of life's basic tenets has escaped the Senate side of the Capitol for years. "We're not supposed to, but it has been a regular practice over about 150 years," Senate Rules Committee Chairman Trent Lott, R-Miss., said about his colleagues' sticky fingers.

"Over the years, they've taken everything," Lott added, according to the Washington Times.

Last week as the Rules Committee discussed the bill, Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, pointed out that a piece of Alaskan artwork had been removed from his office, the Washington Post reported.

Lott also talked about missing chandeliers, including one that was discovered in the White House that the Senate had to ask to be returned.

Senate rules currently allow senators to buy old items, such as their desks, at a discount when it's declared surplus after a period of time. But items that were never declared surplus wound up disappearing altogether.

"Since they can't buy the stuff, they've been stealing it," one GOPer told the Post.

"We want to make this what we think it is – a living, working museum of American history," Lott said, according to Reuters, adding that he may take the bill even further by conducting annual inventories.

"Most of the stuff is not worth having. The stuff in our offices is early junk, it's not antiques." Much of "the good stuff," said Lott, is already gone.

Funny Girl: Looking for a second opinion on tax cuts and the war in Iraq or are you just in the market for some 1960's movies? Barbra Streisand has both conveniently located on her celebrity Web site, www.barbrasteisand.com, the LA Times reports.

If you can get past the fuchsia rose background, Streisand offers her personal insights into several political topics in the "statements" section under titles like, "Let's Unite" and "My Right to Dissent." On tax cuts, she writes, "Why should wealthy people such as myself receive a tax cut? I will be the first to admit that I don't need it. What we all need is a healthy government that can provide the services (such as education, health care, national and homeland security) that we all depend on."

In the most recent posting, Streisand transitions back and forth between the Bush administration's "deceit" and her own Hollywood woes involving some unauthorized photos of her Santa Monica Ranch.

"The president told us he was against nation-building, then he invaded Iraq using what we now know was faulty intelligence of exaggerated threats," Streisand wrote. A few paragraphs later, she says the government's lies have "trickled" down to effect her own life. "The price is that my name and stories told about me are bandied about carelessly. You try to accept it ... but it's hard," she wrote on June 26.

Despite the glamour shot of Streisand in an off-the-shoulder black dress, the singer/actress wants to use her public visibility to take a serious stance on the issues, not as an artist, but as a citizen. Or if you are more interested in buying "Hello Dolly," she has that too.

Political Week Ahead:

Mon. 6/30 – President Bush will host Bush/Cheney fundraisers in Miami and Tampa.

Mon. 6/30 – Vice President Cheney will host Bush/Cheney fundraisers in Grand Rapids, Mich., and Akron, Ohio.

Mon. 6/30 – Howard Dean attends fundraiser in New York City.

Mon. 6/30 – Wesley Clark will speak on homeland security in Philadelphia.

Mon. 6/30 – The Beach Boys will entertain at a John Edwards fundraiser in Los Angeles, Calif.

Tue. 7/1 – President Bush will make remarks on education reform and parental options at the Key Academy in Washington, D.C. and then host a presidential re-enlistment for military service members at the White House.

Tue. 7/1 – John Kerry will campaign in Rollinsford, Portsmouth and Hampton, N.H.

Tue. 7/1 – Vice President Cheney, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, and Sen. Joe Biden will speak during former Sen. Strom Thurmond's funeral services in Columbia, S.C.

Tue. 7/1-7/6 – NEA annual meeting.

Wed. 7/2 – Howard Dean will head a MeetUp.com celebration in Iowa City and also visit Dubuque, Delaware, IA.

Wed. 7/2 – John Edwards campaigns in New Hampshire.

Wed. 7/2 – John Kerry campaigns in Manchester, NH.

Thu. 7/3 – Howard Dean attends an Economy Town Hall meeting in Davenport, IA.

Thu. 7/3 – Joe Lieberman will visit Greenville County Democratic Activists and tour Greenville Memorial Hospital's Cancer and Children's Centers in Greenville, SC.

Thu. 7/3 – Dick Gephardt campaigns in New Hampshire.

Fri. 7/3 – 7/7 - Joe Lieberman, with his wife Hadassah and son Matt, will visit Manchester, Amherst, Merrimack, Portsmouth, North Hampton, Rochester, Bow, Concord, Salem, Exeter, and Epping, NH.

Fri. 7/4 – President Bush will make remarks at a July Fourth and 100th anniversary of flight celebration in Dayton, Ohio.

Fri. 7/4 – Howard Dean, Bob Graham, John Kerry, and Joe Lieberman will march in the Amherst, N.H., July 4 parade. Dean will also march in the Merrimack Independence Day Parade and Lieberman will campaign with his family in New Hampshire.

Fri. 7/4 – The Draft Wesley Clark volunteers will begin setting up offices in Dover, NH.

Sat. 7/5 – Howard Dean will campaign in Concord and Kensington, NH.

Sat. 7/5 – Lieberman and his family campaign in New Hampshire.

Quote of the Day: "It is quite clear that the Democrats are incapable of defending our country against the Bush marauders" - Ralph Nader saying he's letting Green Party leaders know that he's interested in running for president again. (USA Today)