Washington Wrap

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

Tuesday's Headlines

* Dems Gear Up for Convention Time

* Bush Takes to the Road

* Kerry Will Probably Take Federal Funds

* Mike Ditka Thinking About Da Senate

* CBS News' Steve Chaggaris' Trail Bytes

Dems Gear Up for Kerry's Convention: Now that the fireworks from Kerry's veepstakes announcement have subsided, Democrats are preparing for their national convention, which will run July 26 through July 29. The overarching theme for the convention will be "Stronger at Home, Respected in the World."

Speakers will include Teresa Heinz Kerry, Max Cleland, Kerry's colleague and fellow Vietnam veteran, and the Kerry and Heinz children. Cleland will introduce Kerry before his address on the evening of July 29.

Each night leading up to Kerry's address will follow a specific theme, while continuing to emphasize Kerry's commitment to strength and service, as highlighted in his work as a statehouse prosecutor and senator. The first evening will kick off with the Kerry-Edwards plan for America's future. Speakers include former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton and former VP Al Gore. Middle-class values is their theme.

Teresa Heinz Kerry will be up to bat on the night of Tuesday, July 27. Her address will detail "Kerry's lifetime of strength and service." John Edwards will follow on Wednesday night, outlining the argument for a stronger, more secure America. His wife, Elizabeth Edwards, will introduce him. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley will address foreign policy and homeland security, respectively, rounding out the Kerry-Edwards plan for security. The night will focus on the importance of rescue workers and first responders, as well as securing alliances abroad.

Kerry will step into the spotlight on Thursday night. Preceding his speech will be an address by his two daughters, Alex and Vanessa, along with two of his stepsons, Andre and Chris Heinz. Former Vietnam crewmates and Jim Rasman, whose life was saved by Kerry in Vietnam, will also address the convention on Thursday.

Richardson noted that the final list of speakers has not been finalized. However, "the odds are probably good" that Sen.Hillary Clinton will also address the convention. The Rutland Herald reported that Howard Dean would speak on Monday night.

Democrats aren't the only ones interested in the speaker lineup. RNC communications director Jim Dyke said, "It will take an extreme makeover of John Kerry and the Democrat Party's rhetoric to make both presentable to Americans. For four days the Boston convention will serve as the Democrat's great salon." One Republican wag bemoaned the fact that the networks won't be carrying Ted Kennedy's speech on Tuesday night. "He's our greatest asset," he said.

Bush Goes to the Midwest As Gay Marriage Debate Continues: As the debate over an amendment to ban gay marriage continues on the Hill, George W. Bush has gone on the road to court rural voters in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. In a trip that closely mirrors John Kerry's recent Midwest tour, Bush is trying to drive home his claim that he is the champion of "conservative values," reports the AP.

As for the debate over the constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, Senate Republicans aren't even sure which proposal they want to pursue, reports the Washington Times.

"President Bush and Senate Republican leaders support the Federal Marriage Amendment, which defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman and restricts courts' ability to rule on the issue. But some Republicans want to vote on an alternate, simpler version — leaving Republican leaders scrambling to save face as Democrats enjoy watching from the sidelines."

It is the second sentence of the first proposal stating, "Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any State, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman" that is causing some Republicans some worry.

According to the Times, some Republicans want to avoid the issue of civil unions issue entirely, and would rather pass the first sentence that defines marriage, and therefore hold a vote on this one-sentence proposal.

Democrats have said they will vote on the first proposal in its entirety, but will not vote on the simpler one sentence version.

Neither proposal is likely to get a direct vote, reports the AP. A vote is set for Wednesday, but it's a largely a procedural one that is aimed at forcing the Senate to decide whether to act on the amendment. According to the Kerry/Edwards campaign, both men will only go back to the Senate if there's a vote on the bill's final passage – not for any procedural votes.

Show Me That Federal Money: John Kerry will most likely accept federal campaign contributions for the general election. The Washington Post reports Kerry finance chair Louis Susman saying, "We are taking the federal money." A debate has been raging inside the campaign, over whether to accept the federal money or not because with the $75 million that Kerry would get in public financing he would also be prohibited from raising additional private funds.

Some Democratic strategists are enthralled with the idea of rejecting public financing and raising more the $75 million in private donations. The problem with this is that much of the money would come from the strong democratic base, which is in New York and California. Since these two states are most likely going to vote democratic in the election, Kerry spending time there means Kerry won't be spending that time in battleground states where he needs the votes. In addition, some aides worried that a drop in the polls or a terrorist attack might create a short fall for Kerry.

President Bush's campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said the president didn't plan on opting "out" but he would not pledge to stay in the system either. This presents a problem for the Kerry campaign. Kerry has to make the decision to accept the money or not at the convention. Since the Republican convention is after the Democratic one, Kerry has to make the decision first. If Bush forgoes the money and Kerry doesn't it means Bush could raise more then $75 million and dominate the ad campaign.

Kerry and Bush decided not to accept public subsidies during the primaries so they could spend more than the $45 million cap that goes with accepting the money. This produced spectacular results for the both of them. Kerry has raised $148.5 million and Bush $214.8 million in contributions.

Though Kerry aides say now that he will accept federal money for the election they concede the possibility that they may have to rethink it. "Do we have to keep the door open? Yes," a senior Kerry adviser said. The idea of rejecting federal funds would come up again if they learned the President Bush planned to use private money, but the Bush folks are likely to keep that quiet until after Kerry opts in.

Da Senator Ditka? After saying last week that he was not interested in the job, former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka is now thinking about running for Senator. Ditka told the Chicago Sun Times, "A week ago I had no interest. I do have a little bit of interest right now."

Illinois Republicans are salivating at the prospect of Ditka replacing Jack Ryan, who was forced to step out of the race after scandalous divorce records were made public. "Clearly, he would be an ideal candidate," state Sen. Dave Syverson of Rockford, a member of the GOP panel that will choose the replacement, told the Sun Time. "The public is at a point where I think they are fed up with the lawyers and the politicians being the governmental leaders. And the concept of just a hard-working, ordinary guy that made it by hard work is, I think, something that many voters would find appealing."

But Ditka's new found "little bit of interest" and his supporters' words may not be enough to overcome his wife's rather strenuous objections to the run. Diana Ditka told the Sun Times, "And I'm trying to talk him out of it. I lived in a fish bowl for a long time, and I don't want to do that again." She continues, "If I would bet on it, I'd bet he wouldn't do it. I'm thinking to myself, 'You've got to be nuts to even consider something like that.'"

Ditka said he'd make a decision by the end of the week.

Trail Bytes: John Kerry is "down" on Tuesday and on Wednesday he is working on his acceptance speech in Boston. CBS News' Steve Chaggaris has some thoughts about Kerry's way with numbers.

Fuzzy Math?
In the time he's been running for president, Kerry has developed into someone who's been loose with the numbers – not anything serious such as costs of his proposals or the like, but just on trivial matters. For instance, a classic repeated Kerry inaccuracy is his sense of time. He regularly uses "a few days" to describe events that happened weeks or even months prior.

In Los Angeles last month, Kerry referred to his remarks on the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision as happening "the other day" when it was actually five weeks before.

Monday, at a Boston fund-raiser, Kerry talked about crowd sizes at his events with John Edwards last week, seriously inflating the figures, assuming reporters who are always looking for something to nitpick wouldn't notice.

"As we went from Cleveland, where there were about 15,000 people on one day's notice, to Dayton, where there about 18,000 people and on to West Virginia, thousands of people standing out in the sun for 3 to 4 hours waiting for us to get in, down to New Mexico, where there were, I think, 12 to 15,000 people in the evening – beautiful sunset – and then on to North Carolina, 25,000 people on a Saturday afternoon came out to ask for change in the United States of America," said Kerry.

Of all those numbers, however, only the 25,000 in North Carolina was anywhere near an accurate figure. Let's recap using last week's highly inexact science of reporter/campaign staff crowd-counts (but probably more reasonable than what Kerry is claiming):

* At the Cleveland event, according to the eagle eyes of this CBS reporter, there were approximately 5,000 in attendance, a number agreed upon by campaign staffers. The Cleveland Plain Dealer wouldn't even put a figure on it calling the crowd size "thousands," while the Sacramento Bee said 5 to 10,000, much less than the 15,000 Kerry claimed.

* Dayton was nowhere near the 18,000 number Kerry threw out there. The Dayton Daily News reported 10 to 15,000 in attendance while the Boston Globe used the generic "thousands."

* West Virginia was probably less than the "thousands" Kerry claimed as the Raleigh News and Observer reported 1,000 and the Charleston Gazette claimed 2,500.

* New Mexico was reported to be 10,000 by several newspapers as opposed to the 12 to 15,000 claimed by Kerry.

Kerry aides say that the candidate is given crowd estimates from the field staff before he goes out on stage.

However, in keeping with the latest campaign theme, spokesman David Wade explains Kerry's number-padding: "He's an optimist who believes every crowd can be bigger than the one before."

Quote of the Day: "We had better get you women some birth control, there are so many of you here!" --Teresa Heinz Kerry to a "surprised and worried" group at a "Women for Kerry" breakfast (New York Post)