Washington Wrap

Dotty Lynch, Douglas Kiker, Steve Chaggaris, Clothilde Ewing, Nicola Corless, Smita Kalokhe and Joanna Schubert of The CBS News Political Unit have the latest from the nation's capital.

Dean and the Internet have reshaped the way grassroots politicians do business. Meetuppies, Moveons and Dean's Internet crazy campaign manager, Joe Trippi, have brought many of the disenchanted back to the pulpit.

"It's all we talked about all week," Debra DeShong, communications director at the DNC, told the Washington Post's E.J. Dionne. "How can we get to the people who are energized by Dean? How can we get them over to our site?"

One way that has occurred to them is to join in on the attacks on President Bush on the war in Iraq. On Thursday, the DNC unveiled an ad that is strikingly similar to one produced by the anti-war group MoveOn.org attacking Mr. Bush's reasons for going to war.

The DNC ad, "Read His Lips" - which so far exists only on the Internet, not on TV - starts with a video clip from the State of the Union address where Mr. Bush says, "Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." After a discreet pause, the ad adopts the typewriter approach used so well in the Hollywood film, "All the Presidents Men." To the sound of letters pounding, phrases like "The CIA knew it" and "The State Department knew it" from The New York Times appear on screen.

Like the DNC ad, a MoveOn.org ad called "Mis-Leader" uses the written word to drive home the impression that Mr. Bush did not tell the truth. However, instead of using quotes from the media, MoveOn goes straight to the source, using statements by Mr. Bush which have yet to be proven, such as "our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve gas." A print version of the ad now on the Internet calls for an independent commission to be formed to "determine the truth." MoveOn claims over 260 people a minute are signing up to support the commission.

Both are simple ads that play to the anti-war and liberal audience that Dean, Dennis Kucinich, MoveOn and MeetUp have had so much success with in the last couple of months.

The MoveOn ad will start running in New York and D.C. on Monday, with hopes to expand to 16 cities in the near future. The DNC sponsored ad still hadn't found air time as of noon Friday.

Make Love, Not War: What a great idea, White House planners must have thought, to have President Bush visit with real-life versions of the Republican Party symbol while on a safari in Africa. Instead, a perfect photo-op with elephants ended up turning into a peep show.

Thursday, the president, first lady Laura Bush and their daughter, Barbara, were driven to a small nature preserve in Botswana to innocently view the wildlife. During the visit, the three, driven by a guide in a Toyota pickup truck, encountered four elephants awaiting the arrival of their American guests. That's when things turned ugly – or beautiful, depending on your point of view.

One of the elephants, clearly not shy around an audience, let nature get the best of him and mounted one of the females for a few minutes.

During the elephants' "activity," the president leaned over to his wife to whisper something into her ear. It's unclear what he said but Mrs. Bush reacted with a chuckle and a slap on his thigh.

After the elephants finished their business a little early, the Washington Post reported, due perhaps to performance anxiety, the guide suggested that Mr. Bush introduce himself to the elephants. "I'm not so sure," Mr. Bush said, but decided to walk toward the animals. "Sir, do you really want to do that?" asked a Secret Service agent.

The president eventually made his way to the amorous male elephant and told him, "Good boy." Later, when asked if the GOP symbols were a little off-message with their antics, Secretary of State Colin Powell joked, "The elephants were on message. … We were all on message."

Big Chill Award Of The Day: In an attempt to woo anti-war voters, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., distributed fliers of a 1971 picture of him and John Lennon. Following the lead of fellow Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean, Kerry is fighting to gain ground with members of the party's liberal wing, according to the New York Post.

The picture depicts Kerry in a leather flight jacket and Lennon in his unmistakable hat and glasses. Copy on the flier states, "While fighting in Vietnam, John Kerry saw that the well-being of the soldiers was being ignored to protect the interests of White House officials."

The flier circulating in New York was released at the same time as Kerry spoke out against the president in Washington. "Clearly, it's time for the president to step forward and tell the truth — that the war is continuing and so are the casualties," Kerry said.

Although he voted in favor of the Iraq war last fall, Kerry has started blasting Mr. Bush's management of the war. While Kerry is trying to increase his support, incoming RNC Chair Ed Gillespie thinks it will backfire. "Democrats are tripping over themselves to get to the left of Howard Dean when it comes to Iraq in order to appeal to the anti-war activists in their party, but nothing changes the fact that the international community was in universal agreement that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and he was willing to use them before… Their politics may appeal to their anti-war base, but their lack of policy won't make our country more secure."

The Weekend: Not a lot of beach time for the Democratic candidates this weekend. As liberal interest groups hold their annual meetings the candidates are bouncing around trying to cover their bases. Various combinations of wannabes will attending forums at this weekend NOW, La Raza, the Machinist Union and, on Monday, the NAACP meeting in Miami. Tom Harkins's Heartland guest this weekend is Dick Gephardt. Harkin told Roll Call's Stu Rothenberg that he's stopping at nine. So if Wesley Clark or Joe Biden get into the race it's too late for a Harkin forum and too late to get the lists of Iowans who have attended. Here are the weekend specifics:

Fri. 7/11 – Howard Dean and Dick Gephardt address the IAM Machinists Union in Cincinnati, Ohio. Then, Dean travels to Washington, D.C.

Fri. 7/11 – Carol Moseley Braun keynotes the African American Leadership Seminar in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, then travels to Washington.

Fri. 7/11 – Bob Graham in New York for political meetings.

Fri. 7/11 – Joe Lieberman in Connecticut fundraising.

Fri. 7/11 – Moseley Braun, Dean, Dennis Kucinich and Al Sharpton participate in a forum on women's issues at the national NOW conference in Crystal City, Va., from 5-7 pm.

Fri. 7/11 – John Edwards campaigns in Knoxville, Tenn., and then travels to Los Angeles to speak at the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project Latin Vote 2003 Banquet.

Sat. 7/12 – Gephardt campaigns in Iowa.

Sat. 7/12 – Kerry visits with veterans at the Disabled American Veterans Lodge and attends the annual American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees picnic in Albuquerque, N.M.

Sat. 7/12 – Edwards campaigns in Council Bluffs and Winterset, Iowa.

Sat. 7/12 – Dean keynotes the Arizona Democratic Party's annual awards dinner in Phoenix and campaigns in Flagstaff and Tucson, Ariz.

Sat. 7/12 – Kucinich campaigns in Sioux City, Iowa, and holds a public meeting on peace, education, health care, and labor.

Sun. 7/13 – Graham welcomes the delegation at the NAACP conference in Miami, which will run from Sat. 7/12 through Thurs. 7/17.

Sun. 7/13 – Gephardt takes part in Sen. Tom Harkin's "Hear it from the Heartland" series in Dubuque, Iowa.

Sun. 7/13 – Dean meets with local supporters at a rally in Dallas.

Sun. 7/13 – Edwards kicks-off his "Main Street Tour" of Iowa's communities at the Hometown Café in Waukee, Iowa. He will also visit Marshalltown, Boone, Rippey, and Carroll, Iowa.

Sun. 7/13 – Kerry will speak at the National Council of La Raza in Austin, Texas.

Sun. 7/13 – Moseley Braun attends National Association of Counties Annual Conference and Exposition in Milwaukee.

Sun. 7/13 – Kucinich holds a gay rights forum, attends the STAR (Stop the Arms Race) PAC forum in Des Moines and then campaigns in Grinnel, and Ames, Iowa.

Sun. 7/13 – Edwards continues his Main Street Tour in Sioux City, Iowa.

Mon. 7/14 – Dean has breakfast with the National Council of La Raza in Austin, Texas, and then travels to Florida.

Mon. 7/14 – Dean, Graham, Kerry, Moseley Braun, Sharpton attend NAACP Presidential Candidate Forum at the Miami, Fla. Convention Center.

Quote of the day: "Hiking taxes to pay for big government programs is as dead as disco." --House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, after the House rejected a bid Thursday to roll back some tax breaks for millionaires and use the money to increase spending. (AP)