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.

Monday's Headlines

* Bush and Gay Marriage

* Kerry and Edwards Hit the Trail Solo

* CBS News' Steve Chaggaris' Trail Bytes

* Convention News: A Reagan Speaks to the Democrats

* CBSNews.com's David Kuhn's Worth Noting

On Gay Marriage, Bush Plays to the Base: Since announcing his support for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in February, President Bush has been fairly quiet on the subject. But that is changing, reports The New York Times, with the president "escalating his support for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, moving the issue to the forefront of the campaign and underscoring what his aides said was a critical difference between the president" and his rival, Sen. John Kerry.

President Bush discussed the issue at a campaign appearance on Friday and used his weekend radio address to champion the topic. Reports the Times: "Mr. Bush urged the Senate to pass the amendment, saying, 'The union of a man and woman in marriage is the most enduring and important human institution.'"

The efforts appear to be an attempt to placate social conservatives. Those who are pushing right-wing social issues feel left out, especially of convention speaking roles. "The Republicans have got some explaining to do," Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, told the Times, "Social conservatives are not happy."

As Bush reaches out to his base, Senate Republicans are also getting in on the act. The Senate, controlled by Republican leader Sen. Bill Frist, is planning to debate the amendment beginning Monday, with a vote possible as early as Wednesday. Although both Republicans and Democrats expect the amendment to fail – it would need 67 votes – the debate will force Sens. Kerry and Edwards to return to Washington and take an unequivocal stand on an issue that could alienate independents.

Both Kerry and Edwards have said they will not support the amendment. As Kerry communications director Stephanie Cutter told the Times, "There's a difference between being against gay marriage and being for a federal constitutional amendment on the issue … I think most people are going to see that as absolutely over the line and egregious."

As President Bush and Senate Republicans are marching in lock step on the gay marriage issue, second lady Lynne Cheney appears to have missed the memo. Cheney told CNN's "Late Edition" on Sunday, "I think that the constitutional amendment discussion will give us an opportunity to look for ways to discuss ways in which we can keep the authority of the states intact." This is similar to the stance that Vice President Cheney took during the 2000 election, but now puts her in contradiction with the administration. One of the Cheneys' daughters, Mary, is gay. The vice president's press office had no comment Sunday, reports the Associated Press.

Going Solo: Since John Kerry announced John Edwards as his running mate last Tuesday, the two have barely left each other's side. But that all changes this week as the two hit the campaign trail alone. Kerry will spend Monday in Boston, where he attended a breakfast unity event at the black-owned Hampton Inn, and will attend a Hearst roundtable and a Massachusetts legislative dinner. On Tuesday, he will also be in Boston, but with no public events. On Thursday, he attends the NAACP meeting in Philadelphia.

Meanwhile, the Kerry campaign is launching what it described as "the largest Hispanic ad buy" in presidential campaign history and the "largest and earliest African American ad buy" for a Democratic contender, reports the Los Angeles Times. The Hispanic ad campaign, which begins on Monday, will include TV, radio, print and Internet ads and will run in battleground states throughout the Democratic convention. The African American ad buy will begin on Wednesday.

Also this week, Edwards makes his first solo appearance since getting the nod. After staying in Washington on Monday and Tuesday with no public events, he heads to Iowa, Louisiana and Texas later in the week.

Knight Ridder reports: "There are few accidents in politics, and Edwards' itinerary foretells what strategists for Sen. John Kerry conceive as the new running mate's most important duty in the coming months: to travel the highways reaching small-town and rural voters in the South, Midwest and West."

In an interview with "60 Minutes" on Sunday, Kerry and Edwards discussed their shared "energy" out on the trail. Is some of Edwards' energy rubbing off on Kerry? "Well, I certainly hope so. I want it to. I love it," says Kerry. "But he's definitely got energy without me, you know," adds Edwards. "You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see a number of things. One is that we like each other. Two is that we we're having a great time on the campaign trail. And three is we're good for each other."

CBS News' Steve Chaggaris, traveling with Kerry, reports that the campaign seems to think so too and that the two were quite cozy last week. Here is today's Trail Bytes:

Much was made last week about the blatant physical nature of the relationship between John Kerry and John Edwards, including a joke campaign ad that Kerry admitted to getting a chuckle out of.

"They ran this 'new advertisement' that they put on, on the Jay Leno show last night, and it had John and me hugging over the last four days to the tune of 'You Are So Beautiful,'" said Kerry at a New York City fund-raiser on Friday. "And it was a series of hugs and pats and smiles and looking adoringly at each other... And they concluded exactly what I concluded. We make a great couple, ladies and gentlemen."

While it has become a running joke in the media and with the candidate, there's also an undercurrent that, if improperly read into, seems to take the gag to an entirely new level. Twice over the past few days, Kerry campaign organizers dropped in a couple of new tunes during events that, after analyzing their lyrics, could be construed the wrong way.

For instance, at the end of another New York City fund-raiser Friday morning, Natalie Cole's "This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)," blared over the public address system - and was repeated four times in its entirety.

"This will be, yes, siree, eternally / Huggin' and squeezin' and kissin' / And pleasin' together forever through rain or whatever," sings Cole in the song that was recorded 29 years before last week's Kerry-Edwards touchfest.

When asked about the choice of music, a Kerry campaign staffer just chuckled without commenting.

Then on Saturday, at Edwards' homecoming rally in Raleigh, N.C., there was liberal use of the Hootie and the Blowfish hit "Hold My Hand."

Featuring an appropriately upbeat and optimistic theme that Kerry and Edwards are embracing in their speeches, the song begins, "With a little love, and some tenderness / We'll walk upon the water / We'll rise above this mess / With a little peace, and some harmony / We'll take the world together / We'll take 'em by the hand."

"No comb had touched your hair," continues the song, oblivious to the perfectly coiffed Kerry and Edwards when it was recorded 10 years ago.

"I said get up, and let me see you smile / We'll take a walk together / Walk the road awhile, 'cause / 'Cause I've got a hand for you / I've got a hand for you / 'Cause I wanna run with you / Won't you let me run with you?"

The song ends: "Maybe we can't change the world but / I wanna love you the best that, best that I can."

Frankly, if it turns out they can't change the world that may be something the two budding friends should work out on their own time.

Convention Stirrings: CBS News has learned that Ron Reagan, the deceased president's son, will have a speaking spot at the Democratic National Convention. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Reagan has accepted a spot at the convention to talk about stem cell research. Reagan and his mother, Nancy, are ardent supporters of stem cell research, which the Bush administration has severely restricted.

Ron Reagan said he would not campaign for any candidate but would vote for Kerry, "as a way to defeat Bush." He added that his opposition to Bush's restrictions was the only reason he accepted the invitation. "This gives me a platform to educate people about stem-cell research." Reagan said. He continued, "The conservative right has a rather simplistic way of characterizing it as baby-killing. We're not talking about fingers and toes and brains. This is a mass of a couple hundred undifferentiated cells."

The Reagan family became especially active in calling for relaxing stem cell research restrictions after former President Ronald Regan was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Stem cell research could potentially lead to advances against the disease. The former president died June 5, 2004.

In Republican National Convention news, conservatives are a little upset about not getting face time. With the major networks limiting coverage this year, Republican organizers have chosen to use the available time to promote a moderate message, reports The New York Times. Topping the list of speakers is former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and Sen. John McCain of Arizona. These are moderates who are pro-choice and oppose the constitutional amendment blocking same-sex marriage.

Paul Weyrich, a Christian conservative organizer, said in an e-mail newsletter on Friday: "If the president is embarrassed to be seen with conservatives at the convention, maybe conservatives will be embarrassed to be seen with the president on Election Day."

Ironically, the one social conservative who happens to be speaking in prime time at the Republican convention is a Democrat. Sen. Zell Miller will be given some time to address the convention as a Democrat for Bush. Steve Schmidt, a Bush campaign spokesman, said, :The Republican Party is a national party, and the convention lineup will reflect the broad national appeal of the Republican Party. When the speaker lineup is complete, it will reflect that."

The Washington editor of the conservative National Review magazine, Kate O'Beirne, wrote in a last week that the list of convention speakers "is not the mark of a self-confident party establishment." She added, "If the lineup is intended to make an overwhelmingly conservative party attractive to swing voters, it does so by pretending to be something it's not."

Worth Noting by CBSNews.com's David Paul Kuhn: As Republicans and Democrats debate whether President Bush created an atmosphere of pressure that pushed Congress to support the war in Iraq, one former congressman cum Ivy League academic seems to think the entire issue is nonsense.

"The strongest minded, the smartest people walk into the office of the president, whether it is this is the present President Bush or Kennedy and immediately they are cowed; this is the president," emphasizes Mickey Edwards, a Republican member of Congress for 16 years and now legislative expert at Princeton University.

Edwards' point is that Mr. Bush maintains the presidency and, whatever the agenda, it is up to the other party to avoid succumbing to the president's "pressure." Few fairminded analysts disagree that President Bush spoke about the threat posed by Iraq in ominous terms. The question is whether the Democrats can blame their support - or lack of skepticism - on White House statements or on the CIA, whose outgoing director, George Tenet, was a Democratic appointee.

The Senate Intelligence Committee released the first of a two-phase report Friday, essentially debunking the CIA's entire intelligence base for invading Iraq. The question then becomes: is the executive to blame for his subordinates' failures?

During the committee's press conference, Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, the Republican chairman, and Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, the Democratic vice chairman, disagreed on this exact issue: whether President Bush was to blame for the damning criticism of the CIA's faulty Iraqi intelligence.

"If you are going to say, if I happen to be aware that my dean or president of the university wishes to see us advancing the careers of those with blue eyes and I am just aware of it and I just decide on my own that people with blue eyes do well on my own, was that an atmosphere of pressure?" asks academic Edwards.

How you answer that question likely corresponds with whether you feel President Bush is culpable for the CIA's discredited indictment of Iraq, or whether the buck stopped at Tenet's now empty desk.

Quote of the Day: "Until John Edwards came aboard I was the best-looking guy in the group. When he signed on it was a bad day for me." --Chris Heinz, according to Cindy Adams (New York Post).