Washington Wrap

Dotty Lynch, Beth Lester, Clothilde Ewing, and Dan Furman of the CBS News Political Unit have the latest from the nation's capital.

Thursday's Headlines

* Swift Boat Veterans Strike Again

* Illinois GOP Turns To Maryland's Alan Keyes

* Bush to Battleground

* Trail Bytes: Kerry's Iraq Quandary and Edwards OTRs

Swift Boat Veterans Come Out Swinging: Ratcheting up the presidential advertising contest more than a few notches, the right-leaning 527 organization Swift Boat Veterans for Truth launched a new advertisement on Thursday going after Sen. John Kerry's war record.

The ad buy, worth a total of $500,000 will run in the battleground states of Ohio, West Virginia and Wisconsin, CBS News has learned. People familiar with the buy say it is meant to be the first of many, although SBVT's second quarter fundraising numbers show it has raised only $158,750.

The ad, perhaps the harshest since of the general election campaign, features an assortment of Vietnam veterans who attack Kerry's war record. One vet, Lewis Letson, says, "I know John Kerry is lying about his first purple heart because I treated him for the injury." Another chimes in: "His account of what happened and what actually happened are the difference between night and day." A third says, "He dishonored his country... he most certainly did." And the rest of the ad continues along those lines, with one vet concluding, "I served with John Kerry… John Kerry cannot be trusted."

The ad is accompanied by ten pages of documentation, complete with 27 footnotes, and makes use of 12 sworn affidavits from members of the SBVT group.

Given the ad's content, it is not surprising that the Kerry campaign is crying foul. In part of a 36-page document handed out to reporters, the Kerry campaign writes, "Far from being a grassroots organization of veterans, this group is a front for the right-wing Texas Republicans to try and take away one of John Kerry's political strengths — his service to the country in Vietnam."

The Bush-Cheney campaign has adamantly denied any involvement with SBVT. Despite that, there do appear to be several links between the group and Republican causes.

SBVT's largest donor is Houston developer Bob Perry, who has contributed over $5 million to Republican candidates and conservative causes over the past few years, according to FEC filings and an investigation by the Dallas Morning News. Other major Republican – and specifically Bush – backers are also prominent on the group's roster, including retired Dallas businessman Hardin Crow, according to the Kerry campaign. Crow, a Center for Public Integrity study shows, is also a major backer of the right-of-center 527 Club for Growth, which has run a series of anti-Kerry ads this year.

And, in a blast from the past, John O'Neil, who was a surrogate for President Nixon during the anti-war protests led by Sen. Kerry, is also a member of the group. The Kerry campaign also provided reporters with old fitness reports that seem at odds with statements made by two of the veterans in the advertisement.

Should the Kerry campaign need others to discredit the group, Sen. John McCain got into the act Thursday morning, calling the ad "dishonest and dishonorable," reports the Associated Press. "It was the same kind of deal that was pulled on me," McCain said in an interview with the AP in reference to the bitter 2000 primary fight with President Bush. "In 2000, Bush's supporters sponsored a rumor campaign against McCain in the South Carolina primary, helping Bush win the primary and the nomination," explains the AP.
And indeed, Meredith Spaeth, one of SBVT's main media consultants, was the spokesperson for some of those involved in the 2000 campaign against McCain.

The group itself says it is not motivated by politics but rather "to present the truth about John Kerry's post-Vietnam charges of war crimes and John Kerry's own Vietnam record." But with John Kerry's war record now up for discussion, whether the Kerry-Edwards campaign likes it or the Bush-Cheney campaign is directly involved, don't expect either side to give up an inch without a fight.

Illinois GOP Looks to Keyes of Maryland for a Candidate: Late Wednesday night, the Illinois state GOP finally made their decision about which candidate they want to replace Jack Ryan in the U.S. Senate race. The Chicago Tribune reports that Alan Keyes, the conservative talk show host, and a resident of Maryland, was made an offer.

But just because the state party has made up its mind its does not mean Keyes has made up his. "I also believe that the deep and serious and intense committed deliberations that have been made by the leadership in this party deserve from me also a deep and serious and committed deliberation about what ought to be my response," Keyes said, according to the Chicago Sun times. Keyes said that he will make his decision by Sunday.

Should Keyes accept the nomination, it would be the first statewide race in the nation in which each major party fielded a black nominee. Though Keyes and Obama happen to be African American, they could not be more different and they come from opposite ends of the ideological spectrum.

Alan Keyes is 53 years old and has already made two failed senate bids in the state of Maryland and a failed presidential bid for the Republican nomination in 2000. Beyond the fact that he has never held elected office before, it is unclear how Illinois voters will react to a candidate that doesn't live in their state. While Keyes lives in Maryland, he would be eligible to take office if he moves to Illinois by the time he is sworn in.

Keyes acknowledged that his residency was a difficult issue. "I do not take it for granted that it's a good idea to parachute into a state and go into a Senate race," he said before meeting with state Republican leaders. "As a matter of principle, I don't think it's a good idea." This is similar to comment he made when Hillary Clinton ran in New York for its U.S. Senate seat. On Fox News on March 17, 2000 Keyes commented, "I deeply resent the destruction of federalism represented by Hillary Clinton's willingness to go into a state she doesn't even live in and pretend to represent people there. So I certainly wouldn't imitate it."

If Keyes decides to jump in to the race he will face the now nationally recognized Barack Obama. Obama enjoys intense popularity in the state, especially after his keynote address at the Democratic convention last week. Republicans are hoping once they have a candidate, the enthusiasm for Obama's campaign will die down a bit. Should Keyes become the nominee voters of Illinois will surely have an interesting race.

Bush Back to the Battleground: President Bush returned from Iowa to Washington on Thursday where he signed the 2005 Defense Appropriation Act and then went back to a battleground state for an "Ask President Bush" event in Columbus, Ohio and a rally in Saginaw, Mich.

The Bush-Cheney campaign distributed an 11-minute video on John Kerry's "flip-flops" on Iraq, which was unveiled at the Democratic convention last week. The RNC also has an introduction to the video by former Mayor Rudy Giuliani on its website.

Vice President Cheney has no campaign events Thursday but had an active day on Wednesday. In Lee's Summit, he attacked Howard Dean for implying that there could be political motivations dictating the timing of last Sunday terrorism alert. "That just tells me Howard Dean doesn't know anything about how those groups operate. These people are deliberate, they're methodical and their timetable is their own," Cheney said. CBS News' Josh Gross reports on his event in Wisconsin:

Trail Byte: Flanked by 20 foot stacks of hickory, cherry and red oak cabinetry lumber, the Vice President addressed a crowd of more than 500 factory workers and invited guests in Lacrosse, Wisconsin on Wednesday morning.

Citing recent growths in the economy, Cheney drew several conclusions based on President Bush's tax and trade policies of the last 3 ½ years. While the speech could not be considered apolitical, the Vice President made no mention of either Kerry or Edwards by name, relying on the Bush administration's economic record for his material.

"Taken together, the Bush tax relief has achieved a major economic goal: we reduced the federal tax burden on every American that pays income tax," he relayed. "Because of President Bush's tax cuts in Wisconsin, more than 2.1 million tax payers have seen their federal income tax bills reduced."

The VP also reiterated the need to knock down trade barriers to make sure states can export their goods to other countries. He touted Wisconsin's trading successes with Mexico and Canada.

"Wisconsin's even exporting cheese to France," he said to applause and laughter.

"I really like that line…Wisconsin's even exporting cheese to France," he then repeated it in one of the speeches lighter moments.

Before addressing the crowd, the owner of the furniture company in question, Richard Walz, took the Vice President and Mrs. Cheney on a tour of the factory floor. Walz had employees demonstrate several of the large robotic saws used to make the doors for new cabinets.

"You can't do that by hand," the Second Lady responded as pieces of raw lumber were quickly turned into cabinet parts.

While the speech itself was relatively devoid of campaign rhetoric, the fact the election is 90 days away was not lost on the citizens of Lacrosse. As the Vice President left the stage, there were chants of "Four more years!" But it was not universal through the crowd. A few dozen protestors were also on hand, albeit several hundred yards from the factory entrance and it's doubtful the Vice President was even aware of their presence.

One lone protestor, perhaps with a better map, could be seen on the side of the road as the Vice President's motorcade drove past. The smartly dressed man sat calmly with his legs crossed in a lawn chair. His simple placard read 'RESIGN' on one side and 'SAY HIGH TO KENNYBOY' on the other, assumingly referring former Enron CEO Ken Lay.

Sometimes simple can be more effective.

Trail Bytes Kerry on the Stump: On Thursday John Kerry spoke to the UNITY: Journalists of Color Convention 2004 and was asked what he would have done if he were president and heard about the 9-11 attacks while reading to school children

"If I had been reading to children and an aide whispered into my ear telling me about the attacks, I would have told them politely "the President of the United States had something he needed to attend to."

His speech to the Conference covered a lot of security issues but touched only lightly on Iraq. CBS News' Steve Chaggaris reports on Kerry's Iraq quandary:

Trail Byte: The issue of Iraq and how a Kerry presidency would solve it continues to be a point of contention for the candidate, especially with those critics who think he is not being specific enough.

Lines like this one, which Kerry said Wednesday in Davenport, Iowa, don't help his cause: "I have heavy cards to play - I'm not going to lay them all out on the table - no future president or no president should ever negotiate this in public. But let me tell you, I've got big cards to play to bring people to understand the stakes here."

Some critics are likening these claims to the very ones Kerry protested against over 30 years ago when President Nixon claimed he had a "secret plan" to end the Vietnam War.

Kerry was confronted by a Michigan voter this week who told him that Republicans keep trying to convince her that his plans for Iraq are vague.

"That's the thinking, huh?" asked Kerry.

He offered the questioner a rebuttal saying she should tell his detractors "that while George Bush was rushing to war, John Kerry was laying out a very specific set of alternatives... that John Kerry has a specific plan which George Bush over the last months keeps inching towards, one little piece here, you know, goes to NATO, does a little makeshift this, goes over here, asks people that."

"I keep reading in the media, 'What's John Kerry going to do that's different?'" Kerry added. "I've laid out what I'm going to do that's different. I want a high commissioner who is helping in the decision-making. And I'm going to specifically bring them [other countries] into the alternatives of the reconstruction and the overall decision-making of the region."

Given the fact that that's what he's been saying all along, it's a pretty safe bet that his suggestions won't be enough to quell his critics just yet.

Edwards On and Off the Record: Edwards reunites with Kerry in Missouri on Thursday for some on the record Rallies in St. Louis and Jefferson City. CBS News' Bonney Kapp reports on some "off the record" events which don't seem to be all that "off".

Trail Byte: Although "Off the Record" campaign stops (OTRs) may appear spontaneous, they're actually planned, just not advertised to the public. The idea is to keep them as intimate and candid as possible, despite the large entourage of staff, Secret Service agents, and reporters.

When the senator's motorcade pulled up to a BBQ joint along the route from Little Rock to Memphis on Wednesday, it wasn't because he was hungry, although he did buy several sandwiches and sources confirm he ate at least one. And the motorcade didn't pull off Highway 55 near the Arkansas-Missouri border because an alert driver noticed a crowd gathered on the side of the road. Part retail politics, mostly photo-op, Edwards hopes to "win the South one town at a time," according to press secretary Mark Kornblau.

Over the past two days, Edwards has made five OTRs. From dropping by unsuspecting lunch-goers at restaurants to shaking hands and snapping pictures at a rest stop, they rarely make news, but always cause a scene. Traffic was brought to a halt Tuesday on University Boulevard in Natchitoches, Louisiana, for a half an hour when Edwards led a roadside pep rally. As the press loaded back onto its bus, one angry motorist shouted "Four more years!" while the Edwards bus blared "Small Town" from its speakers.

When the traveling road show descended upon Craig's BBQ, a legendary eatery in Devalls Bluff, there was not a single patron for the candidate to meet. The room quickly filled with press, Secret Service, and staffers, however, and a crowd was created. Arkansans were none the wiser when the artificial scene made the local news.

Quote of the Day: "Maybe you should work on your issues of impulsiveness or something." --First lady Laura Bush, revealing to CBS's Early Show the advice she gave to her daughter Jenna, who was caught sticking out her tongue at the media.