Washington Wrap

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

From his perch as ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden, who voted to give President Bush authorization for military action in Iraq last fall, is now emerging as a leading critic of the administration's Iraq policy. Earlier this week, he blasted Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz at a hearing on U.S. plans for post-war Iraq.

On Thursday, Biden made a speech at the Brookings Institute in Washington in which he criticized neo-conservatives like Wolfowitz for their influence over Bush administration foreign policy. Setting himself up as the perfect leader in the middle, he also took a swipe at members of his own party "who haven't yet faced the reality of the post-9-11 world and believe we can only exercise power if we act multilaterally."

"There's a war being waged in Washington to determine the direction of our foreign policy," Biden said in remarks prepared for delivery. "In my view, the stakes are too high and the opportunities too great to conduct foreign policy at the extremes."

Of the neo-cons, Biden said, "They seem to have captured the heart and mind of the president and they're controlling the foreign policy agenda. They put a premium on the use of unilateral power and have a set of basic prescriptions with which I fundamentally disagree."

Biden continued, saying "the neo-cons and the knee-jerk multilateralists are both dead wrong. What we need isn't the death of internationalism or the denial of stark national interest, but a more enlightened nationalism, one that finally allows us to use military force, without apology or apprehension if we have to, but does not allow us to be so blinded by the overwhelming power of our armed forces that we fail to see the benefit of sharing the risks and sharing the costs with others"

In addition to policy speeches at Washington think tanks, Biden is reportedly taking a few concrete steps toward running. Sources tell CBS News that Biden, who ran unsuccessfully for president in 1988, has been making money calls for a possible repeat bid.

He'll need more than he thought following the arrest earlier this month of his longtime Delaware aide, Roger Blevins III, for allegedly embezzling the $350,000 leftover in Biden's Senate re-election account, which could have been a nice nest egg for a presidential bid. Biden has just $7,000 in his coffers now.

With Friends Like This: Yet another member of the Democratic California congressional delegation, Rep. Brad Sherman of Sherman Oaks, came out for Sen. Dianne Feinstein to enter the Oct. 7 race to challenge Gov. Gray Davis. He joined Reps. Cal Dooley and Loretta Sanchez, who called on Feinstein on Tuesday to let her name go on the ballot.

According to Roll Call, Feinstein says she's flattered by the attention. "It's a very heartfelt vote of confidence and I'm appreciative of it. But I have no further comment," she said.

CBS News sources are mixed on how supportive Feinstein is of this draft effort. Those who want her to run point to the fact that she hasn't shut down the speculation and say she's letting them test the waters. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., sounded a little tentative in her comment to Roll Call: "I'm going to do all I can - until informed otherwise - to fight against the recall. Right now, as far as I know, we're all fighting against the recall."

Others say that having been through a recall herself, Feinstein is very sympathetic to Davis' situation and has, in fact, been offering him personal advice on how to deal with it. A longtime ally of hers said, too, that she's unlikely to get into the race because she would probably win "and why should she trade a good job for a lousy one?"

The Davis forces are working hard to repair damaged relationships with other Democrats and trying to keep other strong contenders from entering the race. Democratic members of the congressional delegation are particularly nervous that Davis will be recalled and want some insurance that another Democrat will have a shot at replacing him.

One Davis ally suggested that with a week to go it's not all that bad for them to have Feinstein's name out there. "It may scare (former L.A. mayor Richard) Riordan out of the race if he thinks he'll have to run against Dianne," he said. CBS News Correspondent Sandra Hughes reported on the "Early Show" that actor Arnold Schwarzenagger is unlikely to run because of family concerns, but neither his decision nor Riordan's are firm quite yet.

Meanwhile, San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, who is trying to hold the Democrats in line, summed up Davis' problems in his inimitable way on Wednesday. "You really have to start out with personal relationships in this business. Gray Davis unfortunately has zero personal relationships. I often say that I may be one of Gray Davis's real friends. Gray Davis offends lots of people. He's kind of not hands on when it comes to substantive involvement … he certainly doesn't have any rhythm in his system that allows him to be comfortable at dinner with you or me. The results of that translate into something that is different and distant. Unlike George Bush, who can dump a phrase here and there and mispronounce a name and is still admired, Gray Davis can't do any of that and that is why people do not like him."

The Boys And Their Gals Are Fighting Again: Democratic candidates, Howard Dean and John Kerry are at it again – this time over how a "real Democrat" deals with taxes. After a few weeks of relative détente, both men tried to establish their economic programs as being the best for Americans in competing speeches on Wednesday.

But before either man hit the podium, the gloves were off. In excerpts sent to reporters before Kerry hit the stage, the Massachusetts senator said: "Real Democrats are straight about who they'll fight for. Real Democrats don't walk away from the middle class. They don't take away a tax credit for families struggling to raise their children or bring back a tax penalty for married couples who are starting out or penalize teachers and waitresses by raising taxes on the middle class."

Although he never mentioned Dean by name, he was the obvious target. Whereas Kerry plans on repealing some of President Bush's tax cuts, notably to the wealthy and corporations, Dean says he'll repeal all of the latest cuts to pay for his health insurance plan.

In a rebuttal Wednesday night, Dean said, "This Democrat offers the American people the choice between reckless tax cuts for the benefit of a few Americans, or health care for every American, new jobs for the unemployed and a return to balanced budgets."

Tensions were high, not just with the candidates, but with their staffs as well. According to the Concord Monitor, Judy Reardon, a New Hampshire spokeswoman for Kerry spotted Dorie Clark, the New Hampshire communications director for Dean, who showed up at the Kerry forum with a stack of Dean press releases. In what can be seen as a sneak preview of things to come, Reardon told Clark she'd regret staking out the event and that it was too early in the race to start turning up at each other's events. Clark apparently held her own, though, telling Reardon that it was a public event and that it was her responsibility to respond.

Look forward to round two (or is it round ten already?) at a forum or stump near you.

The Money Keeps Flowing: There's no question there are a lot of perks when you're in the congressional leadership, and being able to raise a lot of money is definitely one of them.

Case in point: This year's new Senate Republican leaders are the biggest beneficiaries while the fund-raising prowess of the GOP leaders they replaced has suffered.

Volunteer PAC, Majority Leader Bill Frist's political action committee, raised an estimated $1.2 million this year through June 30, according to Roll Call, compared to $163,281 for the first half of 2001, the same period in the 2002 election cycle.

New Majority Whip Mitch McConnell's PAC, Bluegrass PAC, pulled in $132,942, compared to $18,250 in the same time period in 2001.

Meanwhile, the PAC of former GOP Leader Trent Lott, who stepped down at the end of 2002, has suffered since he left the leadership. Lott's New Republican Majority Fund reported raising $732,778 in the first half of 2003 as opposed to the $1,138,813 it raised in 2001. And former Majority Whip Don Nickles' PAC brought in $252,525 so far this year, down from $433,145 in 2001.

While there hasn't been any change in the Senate Democratic leadership, both Minority Leader Tom Daschle and Minority Whip Harry Reid are both in hot re-election races in 2004. Their focus on their own races has produced a lot less money for their PACs, which are set up to help out other Senate races. Daschle's PAC was down from $1,116,747 in the first half of 2001 to only $334,425 this year. Reid's is down a bit from $67,000 raised in the first six months of 2001 to $56,000 so far in 2003.

House leaders, meantime, are spending their summer recess on the road to help out their own members. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will host $5,000 per person/$10,000 per PAC event at her Napa Valley home at the end of August, reports Roll Call. That event rounds out around two-dozen fund-raisers she'll attend throughout the month to raise money for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Minority Whip Steny Hoyer will spend some of August at several fund-raisers, as well doing his part to recruit Democratic candidates for the 2004 elections.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert will spend the month raising money for the National Republican Congressional Committee, his Keep Our Majority PAC and, directly for 14 Republican House members in their home districts.

A Different Approach To Taxes: Presidential hopeful and multi-millionaire Sen. John Edwards often touts his tax reform plan, but it seems he forgot to take the message home. The Washington Times reports that Edwards is four months late in paying his property taxes on his Georgetown mansion.

Tax records show that the city sent Edwards a tax bill for $9,562.46 to be paid by March 31, but with late penalties and interest the total grew $11, 092.46 - one of the city's largest for private homeowners. For a city that faced a $323 million budget deficit last year, city tax collection office spokeswoman Virginia Daisley said, "That's a lot of money."

Edwards' office responded to the Times' accusations by email, saying the senator and his wife Elizabeth "had not received a bill. As soon as they received one, they paid it."

After years of success as a personal injury lawyer, Edwards is worth between $12 million and $30 million and he purchased the eight-bedroom home in Georgetown for $3.8 million in September 2002. But the Washington Post reported a few weeks ago that the Edwardses put the house on the market for $6.5 million, hoping to bring in quite a profit.

North Carolina records show that this is not the first time the Edwards have faced overdue bills. During the past ten years, there are at least eight instances when bill collectors assessed penalties for late property taxes on their Raleigh home as well as several automobiles. Oops!

Edwards campaign spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri issued the following statement today: "There have been times when some of the Edwards's automobile and property taxes were paid late. Those taxes and appropriate penalties were paid in full years ago.

"Sen. Edwards takes full responsibility for any of those bills that were paid late," Palmieri said.

Quote of the Day: "There are way too many artifacts better than the boxers to learn about our 35th president." - JFK Library spokesperson Ann Scanlon, on the library's decision not to accept a pair of the former president's boxers (Boston Herald)