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

* Poll Watch: Beginning to Be Repetitive

* Vietnam War Continues to Rear Its Ugly Head

* News Flash: Bush is Running for Re-Election

* Kerry-Edwards Maybe Only a Dream

* Dean and Grassroots Group Try to Slow Kerry's Mo

* Sharpton Campaign Broke and Getting Broker

* Clark Backers Flock to Kerry

Poll Watch: The Same Old (Kerry) Story: Although pollsters have yet to make a trip to Hawaii, which holds its caucuses on Feb. 24, polls from colder climates still show a rosy picture for John Kerry. In Georgia, which votes on Super Tuesday, a poll from Schapiro Research Group (conducted Feb. 2-9; margin of error 6 percent) shows Kerry leading in the certainly Southern state with 39 points, followed by John Edwards with 18 percent and Howard Dean with 10. The poll was conducted before Wesley Clark left the race, so it remains to be seen how his 8 percent of the vote will be redistributed.

And over in the decidedly more northern state of Rhode Island, the Massachusetts senator's appeal seems to be solid. A Brown University poll (conducted Feb. 7-9; margin of error 5.7 percent) shows Kerry with an incredible lead of 70 points. Yup, 70 points. His nearest challenger, Dean, gets 11 percent. If the polls are accurate, those numbers do not quite suggest a competitive finish. As Wisconsin's Feb. 17 vote nears, keep an eye out for post-Clark polls to firm up the field all over.

Georgia (86 delegates)
Schapiro Research Group 2/5-9 (288 interviews)
Kerry 39
Edwards 18
Dean 10
Clark 8
Undecided 18

Rhode Island (21 delegates)
Brown University 2/7-9 (285 interviews)
Kerry 70
Dean 11
Edwards 9
Clark 4
Undecided 4

Wisconsin (72 delegates)
Journal Sentinel/WTMJ 2/4-7 (666 interviews)
Kerry 45
Clark 13
Dean 12
Edwards 9
Undecided 17

Maryland (69 delegates)
Gonzales Research 2/3-8 (326 interviews)
Kerry 45
Dean 14
Edwards 8
Clark 7
Undecided 21

War... What is It Good For? Politics, It Seems: Break out your Birkenstocks and dust off your Dead albums, the Vietnam War is back. Both the Kerry and Bush campaigns spent a lot of time on Wednesday answering questions about who did what 30 years ago.

The Los Angeles Times reports that someone dug up a 34-year-old photo of John Kerry at an anti-war rally. Several rows ahead of him in the audience was actress/anti-war activist/alleged Communist sympathizer Jane Fonda.

The L.A. Times says that the photo "has surfaced on the Internet and TV news programs, fueling speculation that the GOP may try to make Kerry's anti-Vietnam War record an election issue by linking him with a former antiwar activist still reviled by many veterans."

The photo, first run in The Washington Times on Monday, showed Kerry and Fonda at a rally in Pennsylvania. Fonda remains a controversial figure in some circles because of her 1972 trip to Hanoi to meet with North Vietnamese officials. During that trip she donned Viet Cong combat fatigues and posed for photos with North Vietnamese soldiers. Her visit earned her the nickname "Hanoi Jane."

Fonda told CNN last night, "Any attempt to link Kerry to me and make him look bad with that connection is completely false. We were at a rally for veterans at the same time. I don't even think we shook hands."

Kerry aide John Hurley tells the Times, "John Kerry's war record speaks for itself. His war service earned him the right to speak out against what he thought was an immoral war. A lot of very considerable people opposed that war. John Kerry was one of them."

Meanwhile, The New York Times takes a look at a 34-year-old interview that Kerry did with the Harvard Crimson in which he "suggested that he would cede authority over the military to the United Nations and rein in, or perhaps eliminate, the CIA."

"I'm an internationalist," Kerry told the Crimson on Feb. 18, 1970. "I'd like to see our troops dispersed through the world only at the directive of the United Nations."

Kerry spokesman David Wade tells the Times that the comments reflect the sentiments of "a 26-year-old Vietnam veteran angry at the Nixon White House's indifference to soldiers dying on the front lines thousands of miles away," and do not reflect the senator's current positions.

In other Vietnam War news, the White House released dental records on Wednesday that it says proves President Bush fulfilled his National Guard obligations in 1973. The exam was carried out at an Alabama air base in 1973 during a period when Democrats have alleged Bush was AWOL.

In addition, the New York Times reports, "A retired lieutenant colonel in the Texas National Guard complained to a member of the Texas Senate in 1998 that aides to Gov. George W. Bush improperly screened Mr. Bush's National Guard files in a search for information that could embarrass the governor in future elections."

The retired officer, Bill Burkett, said in the letter to Senator Gonzalo Barrientos, a Democrat from Austin, that Dan Bartlett, then a senior aide to Governor Bush and now White House communications director, and Gen. Daniel James, then the head of the Texas National Guard, reviewed the file to "make sure nothing will embarrass the governor during his re-election campaign."

Bush-Cheney Campaign Ramps Up: No doubt about it, President Bush has kicked off his re-election fight.

The Wall Street Journal reports that: "Sagging in the polls and unexpectedly on the defensive, President Bush this week moved full throttle into campaign mode."

The Journal says "the ramp-up will culminate in early March, when officials plan to tap into the campaign's unprecedentedly large war chest -- which may be $200 million by then -- and let loose a salvo of television ads in battleground states."

The Journal reports, "The goal of the new strategy is to give the president forward momentum so he can go on the offensive. Researchers with the Bush campaign and the Republican National Committee are scouring the record of Sen. (John) Kerry, who could capture enough delegates to cinch the Democratic nomination in a month. Bush campaign officials also are now appearing daily on television, especially on the myriad cable news outlets, to promote the Bush agenda, rebut critics and raise doubts about Sen. Kerry."

Along those lines, RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie continues his attacks on Kerry today in Las Vegas. In excerpts released by the RNC, Gillespie says that Kerry's campaign "intend(s) to run the dirtiest campaign in modern presidential politics." Gillespie chargess the Kerry campaign with, among other things, "making slanderous charges against the President of the United States, funneling money to shadow organizations, engaging in voter suppression tactics, and spreading lies on the Internet."

Gillespie also defended Bush on the newly percolating allegations that the president did not fulfill his National Guard obligations in 1972.

Not So Dream Team?: Although many voters have shown enthusiasm for a Democratic ticket featuring John Kerry with John Edwards as his running mate, the Kerry campaign has let it be known that they are somewhat cool to the idea, reports the Boston Globe.

"Kerry advisers say the Massachusetts senator is skeptical about Edwards's strength as a running mate, saying he appears to lack the clout with Southern voters that he often brags about being able to deliver. Edwards's inability to win more than a single primary state thus far may give him the aura of a loser in the general election, these Kerry aides said."

CBS News' Steve Chaggaris reported last week that Kerry was overheard whispering to aide David Wade that Edwards couldn't even carry his home state of North Carolina against President Bush.

The Globe went on to say that "Kerry is also said to be unconvinced that Edwards is experienced enough to step in as a wartime president should something happen to him. National security credentials are the most important assets that the Democratic presidential front-runner would use to choose a running mate, these aides said."

Edwards continues to say no that he has left some wiggle room lately, but many believe his unwillingness to attack Kerry or even do much drawing of distinctions are an indication that he is interested in the number two spot.
CBS News has learned that the Edwards advisors are split; some think that Edwards should make an overture to Kerry and go for number two; others are unsure that would be a good move for the Senator.

Democratic voters, however, are quite united on this idea. A Time/CNN poll conducted Feb. 5 through Feb. 6 found that "If Kerry wins the Democratic nomination, seven in ten (71%) Democrats surveyed think it would be a good idea for him to choose Edwards as his running mate."

Going Negative: Just days after he promised not to run a campaign that could hurt the eventual nominee, Howard Dean has gone after Kerry with a vengeance saying that if he wins the nomination, "once again we may have to settle for the lesser of two evils," reports The New York Times.

In recent days Dean has used Kerry's controversial relationship with lobbyists and wealthy donors as a cornerstone of his campaign comparing him to Republicans who are beholden to special interests. Dean has also gone so far as to say that he believes that Edwards would make a stronger nominee than the Massachusetts senator, "because when Senator Kerry's record is examined by the public at a more leisurely time, when we're not having primaries every week, he's going to turn out to be just like George Bush," he said in an interview with CBS News reporter Eric Salzman.

Dean spent time on Wednesday denouncing the 527 group which ran attacked him last December but now a pro-Dean 527 has sprung up—and is running negative radio ads in Wisconsin attacking John Kerry.TruthandHope.org is continuing a radio ad campaign, that began last week, which tells voters that the only way to "take on" President Bush is by supporting Howard Dean, reports the National Journal.

Two new ads go on Wisconsin radio on Thursday. In one ad titled "Paper Trail," a woman named Lisa discusses Kerry's liabilities with another woman, saying "Republicans are going to paint him as a Massachusetts liberal for the votes he did make." Adding of course that they need a candidate who can run on his record. Lisa then praises Dean as a candidate who "can run on his record" rather than from it.

In the second radio ad titled "Dole Redux," "Mike" and "Rob" discuss the perils of putting too much stock in Kerry's military record, reminding each of how much success Bob Dole had in 1996. "It's not enough to be popular with your own party like Kerry and Dole," Rob says. "You have to be able to show the rest of the voters what you've accomplished. That's why governors win, and senators don't," he continued.

Sharpton Running on Fumes: Al Sharpton's presidential campaign is facing more financial problems as questions arise regarding violations of FEC regulations. The AP reports that the campaign is at least $110,000 in debt to Sharpton. However, FEC rules prohibit candidates who receive federal matching funds to lend their campaigns more than $50,000.

Furthermore, the Sharpton campaign is carrying a debt of nearly $500,000 and only has a few thousand dollars left in the bank. Sharpton is relying on "love offerings" from churchgoers, and continues to make fundraising and campaign stops.

He will appear at the University of the District of Columbia and the Greenleaf Senior Citizens Home on Thursday prior to the District's Saturday Caucus. In the non-binding Jan. 13 Washington, D.C. primary Sharpton came in second with 34 percent of the vote compared to Howard Dean's 43 percent. So far he has accumulated 12 delegates total, seven in last Saturday's Michigan primary and caucus.

Clark Supporters Back Kerry: As Clark bowed out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, several of his supporters endorsed front-runner John Kerry. Thirteen of Clark's 18 House backers gave their support to Kerry, including Reps. Marion Berry (Arkansas) and Charlie Rangel (New York), the two leaders of the general's forces on Capitol Hill, Roll Call reports. The announcement came just hours after Clark officially left the race.

"It is time to close ranks," said Berry in an interview Wednesday. "We have a clear leader identified that we all think can make a good president."

Reps. Martin Frost (Texas), Charlie Stenholm (Texas), Solomon Ortiz (Texas), Jim Matheson (Utah), and Gene Taylor (Miss.), Clark's remaining backers, did not immediately pledge their endorsements to Kerry.

The "mass transfer of Clark supporters to Kerry coupled with Tuesday's primary results seem likely to quiet a whisper campaign that the Massachusetts Senator could not win in the South." Berry has no concerns about Kerry's ability to win in the South, and has said, "This whole idea that it takes something special in the South I just don't buy."

Quote of the Day: "General Wesley Clark today dropped out of the Democratic presidential race. Clark says he'll now go back to his old job, being a Republican." -- ("The Tonight Show")