Washington Wrap

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

Friday's Headlines

* Bush Plays Follow-The-Rival in Pennsylvania

* Is This Any Way to Win the Rural Vote?

* Bush Military Records Destroyed in Mid-90s

* Nader Finally Gets Into a Debate

* Rupert May Have Made the Bad Call on NY Post Announcing Gephardt

Bush Hits The Trail in The Keystone State: Three days after John Kerry used his wife's Pittsburgh-area estate — if you own property in a swing state, you might as well use it, right? — to unveil his running mate, President Bush travels to the Keystone State for a trio of campaign events that he'll travel to by bus.

Al Gore beat Mr. Bush by five points (205,000 votes) in Pennsylvania in 2000, and both the president and Kerry have set their sights on the state's 21 electoral votes this time around. The AP notes that the state is difficult to track in presidential elections: It voted for Bill Clinton twice, but also for the first President Bush in 1988 and for Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984. Including Friday, Mr. Bush has been to the state 30 times since being elected.

Mr. Bush's first stop was in the Lehigh Valley – an economically struggling region in the eastern part of the state that you'll remember from the series focusing on voters there. At Kutztown University, Mr. Bush will participate in an invitation-only "Ask The President" event (prepared, to be sure, for hard-hitting questions like, "How do you manage to be such a strong leader and so handsome at the same time?").

One of the local papers reports that some non-invited guests also will greet the president. "Lehigh Valley environmentalists and anti-war demonstrators will be among a group of protesters who are headed to Kutztown University," the Easton Express-Times reports.

After Kutztown, Mr. Bush heads to Lancaster, for an event on the economy at a small family-owned business, Lapp Electrical Services. Then it's off to York for a full-fledged campaign rally.

Joining the president, the AP reports, was First Daughter Jenna Bush. Ms. Bush, who graduated this spring from the University of Texas, and her twin sister and recent Yale graduate, Barbara, are making their first forays into Campaign '04. Both sisters plan to play a role in their father's re-election campaign as November approaches.

Jenna broke out a videocamera at an unscheduled stop at a local diner near Kutztown and filmed her Dad. A budding Alexandra Pelosi?

Is This Any Way to Win the Rural Vote?: The Sens. John were in New York Thursday night for a star-studded gala full of more than a few off color jokes. The Radio City Music Hall event pulled in about $7.5 million, breaking the previous $6.8 million record, and included attendees like Whoopi Goldberg, John Mellencamp, Paul Newman, Jessica Lange, John Leguizamo, Chevy Chase and Sarah Jessica Parker

Goldberg led the evening's entertainment, repeatedly calling vice presidential designee Sen. John Edwards a "kid" and saying, "He looks like he is about 18." Goldberg also made a series of racy double entendre jokes centering on the current president's last name. It is not clear if Messrs. Kerry and Edwards enjoyed the comedy routine, but neither denounced Goldberg's tone in their own remarks.

Other precious moments during the evening included an original song from Mellencamp in which he called Mr. Bush "another cheap thug who sacrifices our young" and some stand-up from Leguizamo during which he said, "Latins for Republicans — it's like roaches for Raid."

In his remarks, Kerry said that each performer "conveyed to you the heart and soul of our country."

The evening's frivolity brought a rather more serious rebuke from Ed Gillespie, chairman of the Republican National Committee. Referencing the various performers' pointedly negative comments about Mr. Bush, Gillespie said in a statement, "I look forward to today when Senator Kerry tells the people of West Virginia and New Mexico that he sees hate and vitriol as America's heart and soul. I doubt anyone will be celebrating."

Kerry spokesman David Wade later told the Washington Post, "Performers have a right to speak their mind. John Kerry and John Edwards speak their minds and Americans know what they believe." No word on whether KE04 will tone down future fundraisers, but with Edwards' kids Jack and Emma Claire back in Washington, D.C., there were no young ears to offend. For $7.5 million, perhaps the campaign is willing to squirm a little.

Bush campaign chairman Ken Mehlman called on the Kerry campaign to release a tape of the event; so far the Kerry campaign has demurred. Campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill did admit to reporters in a conference call on Friday that Kerry did not approve of some of the remarks that were made.

In today's "Worth Noting", CBSNews.com's David Paul Kuhn looks at the reaction in North Carolina to the Edwards pick.

Bush Military Records Destroyed: In the sure-to-get-conspiracy-theorists-roiled submission of the summer, The New York Times reports that, "Military records that could help establish President Bush's whereabouts during his disputed service in the Texas Air National Guard more than 30 years ago have been inadvertently destroyed, according to the Pentagon. It said the payroll records of 'numerous service members,' including former First Lt. Bush, had been ruined in 1996 and 1997 by the Defense Finance and Accounting Service during a project to salvage deteriorating microfilm. No back-up paper copies could be found, it added in notices dated June 25."

Coincidentally, The Times reports that the destroyed documents include three months in 1972 and 1973 Mr. Bush's "claims of service in Alabama are in question."

"The disclosure appeared to catch some experts, both pro-Bush and con, by surprise. Even the retired lieutenant colonel who studied Mr. Bush's records for the White House, Albert C. Lloyd of Austin, said it came as news to him," The Times reports.

Bryan Hubbard, a spokesman for Defense finance agency in Denver, tells The Times that the destruction occurred as the office was trying to unspool 2,000-foot rolls of fragile microfilm. Mr. Hubbard said he did not know how many records were lost or why the loss had not been announced before.

The Times neatly sums up the dispute – which was brought to light again earlier this year by Democrats – over Mr. Bush's military service. "For Mr. Bush, the 1969 period when he was training to be a pilot, is not in dispute. But in May 1972, he moved to Alabama to work on a political campaign and, he has said, to perform his Guard service there for a year. But other Guard officers have said they had no recollection of ever seeing him there. The most evidence the White House has been able to find are records showing Mr. Bush was paid for six days in October and November 1972, without saying where, and the record of a dental exam at a Montgomery, Ala., air base on Jan. 6, 1973."

Dean v. Nader: Howard Dean and Ralph Nader will face off Friday in what promises to be a spirited debate on issues surrounding the election. The two will meet at the National Press Foundation in Washington to discuss Nader's decision to run and Dean's role in trying to stop him. The Nader camp has asked supporters to donate $5 every time Dean uses one of the following ten phrases: "Spoiler," "Florida 2000," "A vote for Nader is a vote for Bush," "The Nader Factor," "Not the year for a third party," "Ralph Nader is not going to be President," "Anybody but Bush," "All about Ralph Nader," "Safe states" and "In bed with the GOP."

Dean has rallied against the support Nader has received from conservative groups and has some new ammo in news out of Michigan. According to the AP, Michigan Republicans are helping gather signatures to place Nader on the ballot. "This clearly shows that a vote for Ralph Nader is a vote to re-elect George Bush. The Republicans know that, and that's why they are desperate to have Nader on the Michigan ballot," Michigan Democratic Party executive chairman Mark Brewer said.

Greg McNeilly of the state Republican Party makes no effort to hide his party's goal, saying they aren't doing anything wrong and that they hope their efforts will draw votes from Kerry.

Almost on cue, TheNaderFactor.com will launch a new radio advertising campaign in targeted cities in Michigan, Wisconsin, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Florida calling on Nader to declare his "independence from the right-wing extremists" whom the group claims are actively funding and organizing for his campaign.

"Ralph Nader just released his latest book calling on Americans to declare their independence from corporate-controlled Washington," said Tricia Enright, president of TheNaderFactor.com. "Well, isn't it time for Mr. Nader to declare his independence from the right wing extremists who are using his candidacy for their own political gains?"

On Thursday, Nader turned in more than 11,000 signatures to Nevada election officials — more than double the names required and a day ahead of the deadline, reports the AP. Steve George, spokesman for Secretary of State Dean Heller, said the verification process should take about two weeks, and if Nader ends up with at least 5,000 valid names he will have a spot on battleground ballot.

Did Rupert Do It Himself? The New York Post may have gotten the tip for its gaffe claiming that Kerry picked Gephardt instead of Edwards from none other than its chairman and chief executive, Rupert Murdoch. According to The New York Times, an employee of the Post said that Murdoch reported his tip to the Post's news desk a little after 10 p.m. on Monday. (The employee did not want to be named because, they said, Post workers were instructed not to speak about the Gephardt mistake on threat of losing their job.) After getting the call from Murdoch, Mike Hechtman, an editor on the city desk, rewrote an article to be printed on Tuesday about Kerry's choice to say that it was absolutely going to be Gephardt, The Times reported. The original article only said that Kerry's selection would be announced Tuesday morning. There was no author and no source for the article, saying only, "The Post has learned."

Howard Rubenstein, a spokesman for the Post, said that the paper, "stands by its flat denial that Rupert was the source of the story, nor did he order the story in.'' He also strongly emphasized that Col Allan, the editor in chief, said that Murdoch was not the source. When asked if Murdoch had called the paper that night, Rubenstein responded that he didn't know. He added that Murdoch does on occasion call the paper to find out how things are going. The spokesman also said that Mr. Allan ordered the article rewritten and had written the headline.

Quote of the Day: "I'm just thinking about Oreos. Because I love them." — John Atticus Edwards, appropos of nothing, announcing this to John Kerry and his dad. (LA Times)