Washington Wrap

Dotty Lynch, Douglas Kiker, Beth Lester, Clothilde Ewing, Katie Dyer and Jessica Shyu of the CBS News Political Unit have the latest from the nation's capital.

Thursday's Headlines

* Kerry the Democratic Uniter?

* Liars? Republicans Hit Kerry On Offhand Comments

* McCain for VP? No Way Says McCain

* One Kerry Crewmate Questions His Leadership

* Turning the Radio Dial to the Left

* Colorado Democrats Set to Race

Kerry Unites Party One Piece at a Time: After wrapping up the Democratic presidential nomination, Wednesday and Thursday could easily be named party unity days for John Kerry. On Wednesday, Kerry held a face-to-face meeting with former opponent Howard Dean to "plot the path to their mutual goal: ousting President Bush from the White House," reports the New York Times. There was no formal endorsement (yet), but Dean released a statement saying "the truth is we have much more in common, beginning with our fervent desire to send George Bush back to Crawford, Tex., in November." The Boston Globe says the meeting focused on "tapping Dean's grass-roots fund-raising network on Kerry's behalf; sketching the outline of how Dean can help in swing states, in particular by speaking about health care as a physician; and planning how Dean can persuade his legion of antiestablishment supporters not to vote for independent candidate Ralph Nader."

After Dean, Kerry headed to the Democratic National Committee, where he and aides huddled with DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe to plot how the campaign and the party apparatus will work together. Kerry named Robert B. Crowe, a Kerry ally from the Massachusetts political scene, "to be his chief fund-raiser on the Democratic National Committee," the Boston Globe reports. Other details of the Kerry-DNC relationship are not yet clear, but McAuliffe still has his job.

On Thursday, Kerry's unity tour continues to collect members. He will meet with another former opponent, John Edwards, and Edwards' top fund raisers "in what Kerry aides say is a sign both of teamwork and Mr. Edwards's desire to be as useful as possible, particularly while Mr. Kerry is shopping for a running mate" writes the Times. CBS News has learned that the two Johns will meet twice, once in Kerry's Senate office and again at 5pm at the St. Regis hotel where the fundraiser introductions will take place. An Edwards ally told CBS News last week that he hoped bringing some of Edwards' trial lawyer money and supporters would make Kerry look favorably on the North Carolina Senator for VP.

Kerry will also head to Capital Hill for meetings with the Congressional Black Caucus, the House Democratic Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. He will then attend the Senate Democratic Policy Luncheon and hold a press conference with party unity enforcer Sen. Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. With great originality, the press release for Kerry's day is titled, "Democratic Party Unites Behind Kerry." Undoubtedly, the Kerry campaign hopes that sentiment will become tomorrow's headline.

Crooks and Liars: It seems like a quadrennial tradition in American politics: a presidential candidate says something untoward while still wired with a microphone. Four years ago, George W. Bush had his turn chatting with Dick Cheney about their pal Adam Clymer of the New York Times. On Wednesday, John Kerry took his turn while chatting with a group of union workers in Chicago. In reference to the Republicans, Kerry was overheard on a television microphone call them, "the most crooked, you know, lying group I've ever seen."

Kerry's offhand comment – which he made, coincidentally while fiddling with the clip-on microphone, making it less likely he forgot it was there – garnered an angry reply from Bush-Cheney '04 Chairman Marc Racicot, who said in a statement sent out late Wednesday that Kerry's comments were "unbecoming of a candidate for the presidency of the United States of America."

"On the day that Senator Kerry emerged as his party's presumptive nominee, the president called to congratulate him," Racicot said. "That goodwill gesture has been met by attacks and false statements."

For its part, the Kerry campaign showed no regret about the candidate's statement. "Not at all," spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter told the Washington Post. "There's been a pretty high level of Republican attack machine working for the last four years for the sole purpose of smearing the Democrats. We're trying to make this campaign about issues; Republicans are making it about attacks."

All this, and it's only March.

VP: There's More on McCain: Republican Sen. John McCain set off a Beltway bonfire on Wednesday when he said in a television interview that he would "entertain" the notion of being John Kerry's running mate on the Democratic ticket this fall.

In an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America," McCain was asked if he'd accept an invitation to be Kerry's VP. He replied: "John Kerry is a close friend of mine. We have been friends for years. Obviously I would entertain it." McCain added – several times for emphasis – that he could envision "no scenario" in which he'd be asked to switch parties and run with Kerry, with whom he formed a close friendship with the two Vietnam veterans worked on POW/MIA issues in the 1980s and early 90s.

By nightfall, after a day of breathless reports on the cable news networks, McCain was interviewed by two reporters and said, "I will not be a candidate for vice president in 2004. I don't want to leave the Republican Party, for openers. But I don't want to be vice president of the United States, either," Knight-Ridder reports.

McCain also told Knight-Ridder: "George Bush asked me in 2000 if I was interested in being vice president. I said no. I wasn't interested then and I'm not interested now. Is the media so bored that one offhand remark on a morning television show can create a firestorm?"

Perhaps McCain backed off the VP spot to concentrate on another acronym: FEC, or the Federal Elections Commission. McCain, a leading force in campaign finance reform, criticized FEC Chairman Bernard Smith and Commissioner Ellen Weintraub at a Senate Rules Committee meeting, reports the Washington Post. The hearing was aimed at investigating new regulations for how the non-party political groups known as 527 organizations should be allowed to raise and spent money. Currently, the 527 groups lie mainly outside of FEC regulation, a situation both McCain and Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisc., criticized at the hearing.

According to the New York Times, McCain said Wednesday that groups like the Media Fund, which are using soft money to pay for efforts against President Bush, are circumventing campaign finance laws and that the commission should tighten the regulations of these groups to put them out of the soft money business. "Section 527 groups need to play by the rules that all other political committees are bound by" said McCain.

At Least One Crewmate Not on Board with Kerry: John Kerry's winning primary season was thanks in part to testimonials from his former crewmates in Vietnam. In his most effective ad, called "Del," the veteran talks about Kerry's leadership in battle. But one former crewmate has a different recollection, reports The Boston Globe.

According to Steven Michael Gardner, who intends to vote for President Bush in November, Kerry was not quite the "leader" and aggressive skipper he has claimed to be. "He absolutely did not want to engage the enemy when I was with him," Gardner said in a recent interview with the Globe. "He wouldn't go in there and search. That is why I have a negative viewpoint of John Kerry."

Gardner's opinions come from two different experiences he shared with Kerry, one where a young boy was killed and a second when Gardner was injured while on a mission, and Kerry chose to disengage as a result.

David Brinkley, the author of "Tour of Duty" a story about Kerry's Vietnam service, also interviewed Garnder and concluded his criticism was politically motivated. "After interviewing Gardner for over an hour, it essentially boils down to one word: politics," Brinkley wrote. "Gardner is sickened by the idea of Kerry as president."

Gardner maintains his views are not politically motivated and that he did not actively seek the spotlight, but rather talked about his experience after being approached.

W-L-I-B-E-R-A-L: In talk radio, a medium dominated by conservative hosts such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, the left is planning a liberal counter-offensive with a radio network that will begin broadcasting March 31. The Washington Post reports that Air America Radio will feature well-known entertainers such as Al Franken and Janeane Garofalo and will be heard in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

Franken, author of "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot," will now compete with Limbaugh in the noon-to-3 p.m. slot. On his show, "The O'Franken Factor," the comedian says he will "take it to Bush" who is "going down in November." Air America will also feature Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and daily stories from Salon.com.

In addition to working with the new progressive radio network, Salon Media Group announced in a March 9 press release "a series of ambitious editorial initiatives, including the opening of a new Washington D.C. news bureau under the direction of Sidney Blumenthal and new relationships with The Guardian of London."

Salon's first effort is a 5,500 word article by retired Lt Col Karen Kwiathkowski, a Near East specialist who served in the Office of Special Plans at the Pentagon, who writes in detail about the takeover of the Pentagon by neo-conservatives in the build-up to the Iraq War.

Colorado Senate: Democrats Set, GOP Still Working On It: State Attorney General Ken Salazar announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate on Wednesday and, in a show of Democratic Party unity, won the endorsement of two of his former rivals, the Denver Post reports.

Rutt Bridges, founder of the Bighorn Center for Public Policy, and U.S. Representative Mark Udall bowed out of the race shortly before Salazar announced his plans to run for Senate, both saying he was the best man for the job. "If Salazar wins the open seat, he would be the country's first Hispanic senator in 27 years," reports the Post.

On the GOP side, Republicans Rep, Bob Beauprez, Tom Tancredo and Scott McInnis have all said they are interested in running for the Senate, the Las Vegas Sun reports.

With Wednesday's developments on the Democratic side, Republicans began scrambling to find a candidate to succeed the retiring Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell. State GOP chairman Ted Halaby hopes that the party will coalesce behind a single front-runner, as the Democrats did, in order to avoid a bloody primary. Stay tuned because the clear uniter, Republican Governor Bill Owen, has already bowed out of the race.

Quote of the Day: "We like to think of ourselves as the thinking person's James and Mary" --Teresa Heinz Kerry adviser Chris Black on her engagement to Bush family ally B. Jay Cooper (Roll Call).