Washington Wrap

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

Friday's Headlines

* Bush Back to New Hampshire

* Kerry Gets Energy

* Keyes vs. Obama

* Not So Swift

* Trial Bytes: Iraq and the Kerry-Edwards Campaign's New Ride

Bush Goes Back to New Hampshire: On Friday afternoon, President Bush goes back to the Granite State for the seventh time as president, reports CBS News Correspondent Mark Knoller. Knoller says that number pales in comparison the Kerry, who has been to the state 68 times. But Kerry had to compete in a primary, while Bush ran uncontested.

The president is expected to comment on the latest job numbers, which were weaker than expected nationwide. However, the Bush-Cheney campaign put out a strategy memo on Friday citing some good economic numbers for New Hampshire, with unemployment down to 3 percent compared to a high of 4.8 percent in the 1990s. They also point out the number of New Hampshire voters, 19,000, who have left Kerry's home state of Massachusetts, many because of high taxes and housing prices.

On Friday morning, Bush addressed the Unity Journalists of Color conference and defended his terror threat alert last weekend. He also told the journalists that he would consider supporting a constitutional amendment guaranteeing every American the right to vote. And he said that colleges should abolish the "legacy" admissions policies that give preference to the sons and daughters of alumni.

On Saturday, the president will go to his family's home in Kennebunkport to attend the wedding of nephew George P. Bush (son of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush), who made a splash at the 2000 GOP Convention.

Meanwhile, VP Cheney is in Minnesota on Friday and on Saturday goes to a private fundraiser in Westchester County, N.Y. He goes back to the battleground on Tuesday to a rally near Des Moines, Iowa and then onto Branson, Mo., Battle Creek, Mich. and Dayton, Ohio.

Kerry's Energy Plan: On Thursday night, CBS News' John Roberts reported that the Kerry-Edwards campaign would release its new energy plan on Friday. The plan, which Kerry will discuss at the Nelson family farm in Kansas City, Mo., on Friday morning, contains four shiny new goals and the requisite attacks on the Bush administration. Citing record high gas prices, Kerry's energy plan vows to make America independent of Middle East oil, lower energy bills, create jobs and develop clean energy alternatives.

The Kerry plan calls for an "Energy Security Trust Fund… to create a permanent funding stream to develop new clean fuels and technologies." The plan also commits the U.S. to alternative fuels, with the goal of putting "America on a path to meeting 20 percent of its motor fuel demand with domestically produced alternative transportation fuels by 2020." According to the plan, Kerry's foreign policy platform will also "reduce tension in the region and reduce the 'risk premium' for oil." Among the consumer friendly portions include a nod to the belief that "all Americans should drive the cars, SUVs, minivans and trucks of their choice" and $5,000 worth of "consumer incentives" for those who choose to buy "clean efficient vehicles."

On a conference call with reporters Friday morning, the Kerry-Edwards team blamed the current gas prices in part on a "fear premium" created by the Bush administration's foreign policy. According to Camp Kerry, the Bush team's actions have so destabilized the world community as to add $4 to $10 to the cost of a barrel of crude oil. By instituting Kerry's plan, according to Lee Wolosky, a former director at the NSC, "This plan will put our security in the hands of Americans and not have it remain in hands of Saudi family…it will remove shackles of dependency from the conduct of our foreign policy in the middle east in particular and thereby being to enhance our security." Said Robert Altman of the Bush-Cheney energy plan, "It's the worst of all worlds."

The Bush-Cheney campaign hit back immediately, scheduling its own conference all for Friday afternoon and providing reporters with a background sheet that said in part, "John Kerry's record on energy is one of advocating policies that would raise energy prices across the board for working families and businesses, weaken the economy, lower disposable incomes, and cause massive job losses in key industries, as well as making America more dependent on foreign sources of energy." The BC04 team blames a large part of the high gas prices on the failure of Congress to pass the Administration's energy plan.

The Kerry-Edwards response? Altman pre-empted that criticism during the conference call saying, "They talk about how, 'If only Congress had passed our energy plan'…but Republicans control both the House and the Senate, so that's not a viable idea."

Look for the jawboning to continue on both sides.

Keyes About to Move to Illinois: It looks like 53-year-old Alan Keyes of Maryland will accept the Illinois Republican Party's nomination for a U.S. Senate seat. The Chicago Tribune reports that one member of the Illinois Republican State Central Committee said, "He (Keyes) indicated he wanted to come back on his own terms, bring some of his supporters with him and didn't want to have to walk out the door (Wednesday night) bombarded with questions about everything." The committee member continued, "He just wanted a few days to organize things."

Longtime Keyes friend Bill Pascoe said he could not confirm the conservative talk show host accepted the nomination. He added, "He (Keyes) thinks he owes it to them to take the time to deliberate." But several Republican sources confirmed Keyes would accept, according to the Tribune

Keyes' decision comes as an ideological war between conservatives and moderates in the Illinois Republican Party come to a head. It has taken nearly six weeks to pick someone to replace March primary winner Jack Ryan on the Nov. 2 ballot. Conservatives pushed for Keyes while moderates on the state central committee, the committee that selects Ryan's replacement, pushed White House deputy drug czar Andrea Grubb Barthwell. The decision to give Keyes the nod was not unanimous according to several committee members.

The newly minted challenger will face an uphill battle. A Chicago Tribune editorial calls him the "GOP Rent-A-Senator," and uniting the Republican Party around him may prove difficult. Two former Republican governors seemed lukewarm about the selection. Jim Edgar said, "No comment," when asked about Keyes, and James Thompson said he had "no idea" whether he was going to endorse Keyes. "I'll wait and see what he has to say." On the upside, conservatives appear to be on board. The Tribune says that U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, from Illinois, will support Keyes once he accepts the nomination. Hastert has also pledged to raise money for him.

Keyes will face Barack Obama in the general election. Obama has recently garnered national attention as the keynote speaker for the Democratic National Convention and is extremely popular, at least at the moment, in Illinois.

Not So Swift: One of the veterans who appears in the controversial new ad by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has "backed off" his contention that Sen. John Kerry did not deserve a Silver Star, the Boston Globe reports. CBS News obtained a copy of affidavits from 13 of the veterans, including one from Lt. Commander George Elliot in which he says Kerry has "lied about what occurred in Vietnam."

Reached Thursday by Globe reporter Michael Kranish, Elliott said he "regretted signing the affidavit and still thinks Kerry deserved the Silver Star." The ad, which began running in small buy in Ohio, Wisconsin and West Virginia on Thursday, includes Elliot saying, "John Kerry has not been honest about what happened in Vietnam."

Elliot told the Globe that he wasn't under any political pressure to sign the affidavit, just time pressure. "It was a terrible mistake for me to sign…I'm the one in trouble here." He went on to say "I knew it was wrong…In a hurry I signed it and faxed it back."

However on Friday, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth released a statement saying they had a new affidavit from Elliott in which he said he was misquoted and reiterated his claims about Kerry.

"I fully reaffirm my statement in the Swift Boat ... [ad] ... in which I said that John Kerry has not been honest about what happened in Vietnam," the statement read.

Sen. John McCain has called the ad "dishonest and dishonorable" and urged the Bush campaign to condemn it. The White House sidestepped that Thursday, saying that Bush is against soft money advertising (such as the ad in question) and has never questioned Kerry's service in Vietnam. The DNC asked television stations not to run the ad and so far three have complied. Consultants for the Swift Boat Veterans group have not responded as to whether they will pull the ad in light of Elliot's statement.

Kerry campaign spokesman, Michael Meehan called the ad "gutter politics."

The ad was the talk of the campaign trail on Thursday but, CBS News' Steve Chaggaris reports, Kerry himself preferred to let others do the talking:

Trail Byte: As talk swirled about the ad released by a group of Vietnam vets that trashed Kerry's military service, Kerry avoided commenting on it, instead relying on his campaign aides and Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, to denounce the validity of the ad.

Instead of directly referring to it, Kerry and his running mate wound up referring to his service extensively and more passionately than they have lately.

Edwards added a line about Kerry's service to his speeches on Thursday, making sure to honor Kerry's time in Vietnam in stronger terms than he usually does.

At a rally in Jefferson City, Missouri, Edwards told the crowd gathered in front of the state capitol, "Thirty years ago when he finished college, he volunteered…Volunteered for military service, volunteered for Vietnam, volunteered for one of the most dangerous duties in Vietnam. He was wounded and honored for his valor in Vietnam."

Kerry, meantime, talked emotionally about one of his good friends who was killed in Vietnam, Richard Pershing, whom he has never talked about in detail on the stump before.

After comments by Rep. Ike Skelton, D-MO, in Jefferson City, Kerry said, "[Skelton] mentioned that [World War I] Gen. [Jack] Pershing came from out here. It just happens that Gen. Pershing – Gen. Pershing's grandson was my very best friend – one of my very best friends in college. All through college. We actually went to high school together. And we played on the soccer team together and we played on the lacrosse team together and we're, you know, cavorting as young college folks do.

"And he followed in his grandfather's footsteps and he went into the Army, went into the 101st Airborne. And when I was traveling to Vietnam for my first tour of duty in 1968 during the Tet Offensive, I was on a ship in the Pacific when I learned that Dickie Pershing - Richard Pershing - his grandson - was killed during the Tet Offensive, giving his life for his country."

Later, to hammer home the point about his time in Vietnam, Kerry repeated a line he has been using the past few days declaring, "I defended this country as a young man and I will defend it as president of the United States."

Edwards On Track: CBS News' Bonney Kapp reports from the Edwards side of things.

Trail Byte: The Kerry/Edwards "Believe in America" tour took to the rails Thursday, when the 15-car train departed St. Louis' Union Station on a cross-country journey to Las Vegas. The locomotive's engine sports the tour's logo, "a very impressive paint job" as described by one of the train's crew.

A hodgepodge of Amtrak passenger cars and grandiose cars reminiscent of the steam engine era (guess which ones the candidates and their families inhabit?) form the train. There are three dining cars and two of the cars are double-deckers, offering a spectacular view of the Mississippi River at 90mph. When no presidential candidates are on board, the old-time locomotive tops out at 35mph.

RailCruise, the St. Louis-based company which operates the train, normally hosts guests for a night of dinner and drinks. Several weeks ago, when the company hosted 250 employees from a pharmaceutical company for 3 ½ hours, the bill, with open bar, came to $33,000.

The Kerry/Edwards campaign rented the train for some 180 people and added six cars over an eight-day span. Kerry spokesman David Wade was unsure of the trip's exact cost as of 1:00 AM Friday morning, but one RailCruise employee said he "couldn't imagine" the price tag. The campaign may have figured it would save some money by keeping a cash bar ($4 beers, $6-8 mixed drinks) and nixing the optional dance floor car...much to the chagrin of many in the press.

The romantic notion of a whistle-stop tour of America doesn't come without hitches, however. The press is kept a full 10 cars away from the caboose, the candidates' stage. On the very first stop in Washington, MO, the pool press corps was hurried back on to the train before the candidates' wives addressed the crowd. Their remarks went undocumented by much of the national media due to the long walk back to the press cars.

And then there's the traffic, unable to bypass a stopped train. En route to Kansas City late Thursday, a notoriously long-winded Kerry apologized to a crowd for the brevity of his remarks. "We've just been told by Amtrak that we've got a train out here that's holding," he said with a laugh. "So we are limited in time." Empty promises – as Kerry spoke for about 15 minutes while Amtrak passengers down the rail probably questioned the hold-up.

Quote of the Day: "She's still the congresswoman here in Miami; I'm just the guy who goes to Washington and votes." --Rep. Kendrick Meek, speaking about his mother. (Tallahassee Democrat)