Washington Wrap
Dotty Lynch, Douglas Kiker, Beth Lester, Clothilde Ewing, Sean Sharifi and Jamie English of the CBS News Political Unit have the latest from the nation's capital.
Thursday's Headlines
* Bush-Cheney Picks a Fight Over Unborn Victims Bill Signing
* The Debate War Heats Up
* New Anti-Bush Ad Likely to Add Fuel to the Fire
* Boston/New York Convention Chaos
* Republican Senators Struggle With Bush-Cheney Over Campaign Cash
* Schwarzenegger Goes to School on Sexual Harassment
Abortion Politics: As President Bush prepared to sign the Unborn Victims of Violence Act on Thursday, his re-election campaign released a "fact sheet" outlining John Kerry's opposition to the legislation, which many abortion rights proponents believe is a backdoor attempt to criminalize abortions.
Kerry voted against the bill in the Senate. The Bush campaign in an e-mail said Kerry's position on the bill is "out of touch with mainstream voters."
In the e-mail, the Bush campaign writes: "The Fact Is UVVA Specifically Exempts Abortion. Very clear language in the bill specifically exempts abortion from being covered." The e-mail also says Kerry "chose to play abortion politics" on the bill and quotes a letter it says Kerry wrote to a constituent saying the bill would "clearly impact a woman's right to choose."
The next section is a list of of Kerry statements and votes on the abortion issue, including his votes against prohibiting late-term – or "partial birth" – abortions, his votes against requiring parental notification for minors getting abortions and his votes to permit federal dollars to pay for abortions.
This is considered a "base-enhancer." The Democrats are ginned up about an April 25 March for Women's Lives which will enhance their base as well, although John Kerry is not expected to attend since that would make the event "political." Heaven forbid!.
Kerry and Another Debate Over Debates: The Kerry campaign issued a second debate challenge to President Bush on Thursday, with the addendum that the proposal is "Not An April Fool's Joke." In a letter to Bush-Cheney campaign chairman Mark Racicot, Kerry's campaign chairwoman, former New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, wrote: "I am writing to urge you and President Bush to join us in raising the level of dialogue in this presidential campaign by accepting John Kerry's invitation to debate on six specific issues in six states."
Although neither the issues nor the states are named in this letter, it alludes to a previous challenge made by Kerry on March 13. At that point, Kerry spoke from Quincy, Ill., the home of the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates, and proposed a 2004 version of that series in which he and Bush would debate once a month on a specific issue.
Kerry's eagerness to debate is probably based on the bounce he received from a series of eight debates (nicknamed the Battle of the Brahmins) held during his hard-fought 1996 re-election campaign against then-Governor of Massachusetts Bill Weld. About that experience Kerry explained, "I have to admit, when I first decided to do it, I wondered if voters could actually take the cruel and unusual punishment of having to listen to two politicians for that long." But, Kerry concluded, "By the time voters went to the polls, everyone knew where we stood and what we would do. And after the election was over, Bill Weld and I were still able to get together for a beer at a local bar, pull up a stool together, and shake hands as friends."
Undoubtedly Kerry's victory in the election also increased his excitement about debates.
So far, the Bush-Cheney campaign has not taken the bait. The B/C team responded to Kerry's first request by issuing a statement that read: "After calling Republicans crooks and liars, running 17 negative ads over 15,000 times and spending $6.3 million attacking the President, John Kerry is now calling for a civil debate on the issues. Senator Kerry should finish the debate with himself before he starts trying to explain his positions to the voters."
This second invitation has been met with no comment at all so far. Stay tuned.
Fuel to the Fire: The Bush campaign, which spent an unprecedented $41.8 on campaign ads, many of which went after John Kerry, has become increasingly frustrated with the ability of Kerry and "independent" groups, such as the MoveOn.org and the Media Fund, to counter with nearly $20 million in ads, reports the Washington Post.
A complaint filed on Wednesday by Bush-RNC is designed to look into the legality of the activities of the Kerry campaign and allied groups and a ruling against the Democrats "would cut off a major source of campaign support for Kerry."
Now the AFL-CIO, which would not be affected by the complaint, is getting into the act. It has just released a new 30-second ad, entitled "State" on Thursday, which uses clips of Bush speaking glowingly about the economy during the State of the Union, with clips of hard-hit workers.
"Manufacturing activity is increasing," Bush says, followed by a clip of Larry Baston who talks about a lifetime job that is gone. "I worked at a job for 25 years and it's gone. My life is gone," he says.
The ad will air in 11 states for one week and follows an eight-day, 18-city "Show Us the Jobs" tour, which featured 51 unemployed and underemployed workers who talked about how the jobs crises has effected them and their communities.
Convention Chaos: With thousands of people expected in Boston and New York for the Democratic and Republican conventions, fears about security and more mundanely, traffic, mount. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and other say the city's best hope might be to scare people with tales of nightmare traffic so that many commuters choose to leave town or vacation July 26th-30th, when the Democratic convention will be held, the Boston Herald reports. "What we're doing is ringing the alarm bell and saying the sky is falling," Menino said.
Commuters may be more inclined to think about vacation after hearing that at the insistence of the Secret Service, parts of Interstate 93 near the Fleet Center (the location of the convention) will be closed in the evening during the four-day convention. In addition, North Station, which has an exit at the Fleet Center, will be closed from the weekend before the convention until the close on the 30th and the 24,000 people who on average use the T each day will be dropped off at suburban stations and then ferried to a main city station via pre-inspected buses.
At one point, city officials tried to strike a deal with the Secret Service to close I-93 only during the final night of the convention, when Kerry and his vice-presidential pick were in the building, but the Secret Service apparently considered the event itself to be as likely a target as the candidate, reports the Boston Globe.
Meanwhile, there are no plans to close Pennsylvania Station for the Republican National Convention, which will be held above it at Madison Square Garden August 30-September 2, reports the New York Times. But according to the New York Daily News, "the Secret Service wants all Amtrak, NJTransit and Long Island Rail Road Service to cease."
"For now, the six subway lines that run alongside the Garden on Seventh and Eighth Aves. will remain open but won't stop at 34th St.," government officials told the News. But there is still debate on whether to demand the subway lines also be fully stopped when Bush takes the stage on the last day of the GOP convention.
The New York Police Department, which is working with the Secret Service, denied any final decisions had been made, saying extra security will be added, but that the station and its major arteries will remain open. "New York City will be open for business," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
Can't Give Enough Cash: The Hill reports that it appears President Bush's fundraising juggernaut comes at the expense of Senate Republicans because many of the GOP's top financial contributors are bumping up against the $57,500 cap placed on cumulative individual contributions to all party committees. Once these donors have written separate $25,000 checks for the RNC and the Bush-Cheney campaign, they are able to only give $7,500 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
NRSC Chairman Sen. George Allen says, "That is the most difficult impediment to raising funds for us. This year, the focus is on the presidency. The RNC gets a lot of that cash."
Sen. Rick Santorum echoed Allen's remarks saying, "It's a big problem. I'm finding this in my state. RNC, Bush-Cheney - people are hitting max and can't give to us. So we'll have to work a little harder." But the NRSC may receive little sympathy over the issue as they had $12.9 million in the bank as of February and are expected to come out with updated figures for March in the next few days.
An Education for the Governator: California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger voluntarily took a course in preventing sexual harassment, reports the New York Daily News.
The course, conducted earlier this year by a deputy attorney general who is an expert in employment and discrimination law, was required of senior staff members but optional for statewide elected officials.
In the days leading up to his election, Schwarzenegger was accused of sexual harassment by 16 women. He responded by apologizing for "behaving badly" toward women and vowed to investigate the allegations. A month after the election the Governor chose not to investigate the sexual misconduct claims.
Quote of the Day: "There are comments that there's not enough disagreement in the White House. Well, there's plenty of argument. There are plenty of disagreements." -- Bush adviser Karen Hughes, in her new book, on her disagreement with Karl Rove over the public signing of the campaign finance bill (New York Times)