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.

Candidates have started cherry-picking forums this year, but this was one where not coming had consequences. John Edwards and John Kerry reversed themselves at the last minute and went to the Monday forum after all. But Dick Gephardt, Dennis Kucinich and Joe Lieberman stuck to their original plans not to attend, which the country's largest civil rights group took as a snub.

Referring to the missing candidates, NAACP President Kweisi Mfume told the convention, "If you expect us to believe that you could not find 90 minutes to come by and address the issues affecting our nation, then you have no legitimacy over the next nine months in our community."

The prospect may have been more than the candidates could bear. An aide to Lieberman admitted to Connecticut Now that the senator, who was "caught" in New York on Monday appearing on the Fox News Channel, made a mistake in not attending.

Mfume said he learned on Wednesday that Gephardt and Lieberman wanted to publicly apologize to the convention. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., defended Kucinich's absence, saying he was right to stay in Washington for an important vote on prescription drugs. Early Thursday morning, Mfume was told all three candidates would publicly apologize Thursday.

And grovel they did. Kucinich even invoked a hymn of redemption. "I'm very sorry I wasn't able to be here, amazing grace, how sweet it is, once was lost, now I'm found."

Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was also scheduled to speak, said, "This is pre-season. The focus should be on George Bush."

Summer School: Democratic presidential candidates are in heavy policy mode this July. In Concord, N.H., on Thursday, Sen. Bob Graham of Florida unveiled his economic plan, which includes a tax increase for the nation's wealthiest people that Graham says will help the ailing U.S. economy.

Graham's plan would not roll back the Bush tax cuts in their entirety as some of his Democratic rivals have proposed, the Miami Herald reports. Rather, Graham would eliminate tax breaks instituted since 2001 for only the wealthy, and would create a new "millionaire's bracket" at 40 percent - up from the current maximum of 35 percent - for those earning over $1 million a year. Graham would also reset the 35 percent top tax rate at 38.6 percent, its 2001 level, for the wealthy not-quite millionaires.

His plan would also stop the phase-out of the estate tax at its 2009 level - $3.5 million for individuals and $7 million for couples. The exemption, unlike the current estate tax plan that expires after 2010, would be permanent. Graham would also repeal the 2003 tax cuts on dividends and capital gains.

If the economy is still ailing in 2005, Graham would make the first $10,000 a family earns exempt from federal taxation. He would also expand and maintain the current maximum $1,000 per-child tax credit. Both proposals, Graham says, would help lower- and middle-income Americans.

On his proposal to raise taxes for $1 million-plus earners – sure to be compared with previous Democratic tax-hike disasters like Walter Mondale's in 1984 and Bruce Babbitt's in 1988 – Graham says: "If those people who earn more than a million dollars a year find that to be offensive and they will not vote for me, then that's their decision."

Graham's plan would also increase spending on schools and student loan programs, infrastructure likes roads and bridges, broadband technology and alternative sources of energy. His plan includes $13 billion for seaport security and terrorism first-responder needs that would be matched 50-50 by states and local jurisdictions. Graham says such federal spending would spur economic growth, the Herald reports.

Meanwhile, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., went on the attack against President Bush on Wednesday, criticizing the administration's national security policies from Iraq to terrorism in a speech in New York. Kerry said the nation has a "preparedness gap" regarding potential future terror attacks.

Kerry laid out his homeland security plans including a national initiative to hire 100,000 new firefighters for frontline defense. He pledged to end "unfunded mandates" that are bankrupting state and local governments. "Homeland security is as much a national responsibility as homeland defense," Kerry said.

He also proposed a "national alert system targeted where the threat really is instead of raising orange alarms all across the country every time there is danger no matter where than may be."

Kerry, flanked by an American flag and firemen and policemen at the Veterans Memorial Hall in the Bronx, also blasted the White House for allegedly dragging its feet on giving information to the commission investigating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"It's time we were told the truth about America's safety," Kerry said. "It's time we had a president who will truly make this nation secure."

Elsewhere, Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., plans to make a speech on his plan to spur U.S. manufacturing in Salem, N.H. on Friday.

Not So Teeny After All: Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., may have just slightly underplayed the importance of an earlier weapons charge. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, what Issa called an "unloaded … teeny pistol" is now reported as a .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol.

Police reports contend Issa was arrested in Adrian, Mich., in 1972 when his yellow Volkswagen was pulled over for going the wrong way on a one-way street. When Issa unlocked the glove compartment to show his registration, the officer caught sight of the box with a sticker that said ".25 cal." on it, holding the semiautomatic pistol with seven bullets inside. Upon further inspection of the glove compartment, the officer discovered a military-style pouch containing a box with 44 bullets in it, a tear gas gun and two rounds of ammunition.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Issa said the gun was an "unloaded, never-fired, in-the-box little teeny pistol." He further went on to deny owning the weapon. However, according to the arresting officer, Don Payne, this was not the case. Payne asserts Issa acknowledged ownership of the gun and stated it was necessary for the protection of his car and himself. Payne recalls, "It was a B.S. story, and (my partner and I) were laughing about it later."

Issa, who declined to be interviewed for the story, "recalled this minor incident from 30 years ago to the best of his memory," said spokesman Jonathan Wilcox.

The motivating force behind the effort to recall Gov. Gray Davis, Issa has vowed to be on the ballot if the recall move passes.

In some bad news for Davis, anti-recall proponents faced a setback Wednesday as a judge denied a proposal to hear their lawsuit at the earliest date possible. According to the Sacramento Bee, the lawsuit's plaintiffs had requested that Superior Court Judge Carl J. West review their case on July 23, the day that Secretary of State Kevin Shelley receives the petition signatures.

The lawsuit would have stopped Shelley from making any decisions on the recall, including certification of the election, until county clerks determine the legality of petition circulators. Davis' allies are trying to delay the recall and want to get an injunction to stop verifying signatures until the qualifications of the signature gatherers (some of whom they say may be from out of state) are checked.

Justice for Sale?: Democrats sought to delay the vote on Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor's nomination to the U.S. Appeals Court so they could look into fundraising practices of some Republican attorneys general. The Washington Post reported on Thursday that at least six state attorneys general from the Washington-based Republican Attorneys General Association solicited hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions from companies caught up in lawsuits and investigations in their states.

A former RAGA employee, Kelly Foradori, handed over internal documents to the Judiciary Committee that described direct calls from Pryor and several other state AG's to corporations involved in lawsuits they helped prosecute. Republicans say the fundraising was legal and that Pryor was truthful about his involvement, but Democrats want time to speak with Foradori and to question Pryor about the potential conflict of interest.

According to the Post, the documents say Pryor phoned Philip Morris Inc. and Brown & Williamson in 1999 and asked for $25,000 for RAGA memberships. The two tobacco companies were part of a $2.6 billion liability settlement in 1998 reached by Pryor and 25 other state attorneys general. The documents also mention fundraising phone calls by former Virginia Attorney General Mark Earley, Delaware Attorney General Jane Brady, South Carolina Attorney General Charlie Condon, former Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery and former Texas Attorney General and current Sen. John Cornyn, to major national companies.

"This is incredibly tawdry," Charles Lewis, director of the Center for Public Integrity, told the Post. "There is an incredible mercenary element to this that implies policy is being bought and sold."

Quote of the Day: "Run Joe Run" - From the new Draft Biden for President Web site started by South Carolina political consultant Jack O'Toole. (Politicalwire.com)