Washington Wrap

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

Friday's Headlines

* Bush's Money

* Kerry, Bush and the September 11 Commission

* Religion Round-Up

* Jack Ryan Unsealed

* Nader on the Debates

Bush's Money: And now for an unexpected headline in the presidential money race: Kerry Outraises Bush for Second Month in a Row. On Friday morning, the BC04 team announced its May fundraising total of $13 million. That brings the campaign's total to $213.4 million for the cycle, including $63 million in cash on hand. The campaign is trumpeting its fundraising as unprecedented. In a release, campaign manager Ken Mehlman said, "Two months after the President's last Bush-Cheney 04 fundraiser, we continue to receive support from hundreds of thousands of voters throughout the country … We are using that support to share President Bush's positive message and build the largest grassroots campaign in history."

But amidst that record-breaking $213 million is the reality that John Kerry's fundraising outpaced Bush-Cheney's for the second month in a row. According to numbers released by the Kerry campaign on Wednesday, JK raised "at least" $26 million in May, double the Bush haul. That $26 million brings Kerry's three-month total, since he became the effective Democratic nominee in early March, to over $100 million.

Kerry's total for the cycle, $145 million, is still below BC04's by more than $60 million, but that gap is closing daily. Just before Kerry clinched the nomination, he had raised $41 million to Bush-Cheney's $160 million. Clearly that 4-to-1 margin has shrunk significantly.

Bush-Cheney's saving grace may be in cash on hand. The campaign announced that it has $63 million cash on hand at the end of May. The Kerry campaign declined to provide CBS News with its own figure, but it is thought to be less. At the beginning of May, the Kerry team had $28 million COH and the campaign spent at least $25 million in May on an ad buy – and that does not include any other costs (salaries, rent, etc.). So even after raising $26 million, Kerry's COH will likely be less than Bush-Cheney's. Official FEC numbers will not be available until June 20.

Click here for more on Kerry's fundraising efforts and one of the avenues the campaign is pursuing to up the Democrats' cash flow.

Kerry Steps Up Attacks on Bush: John Kerry stepped up his attacks on President Bush on Thursday after the September 11 commission reported no evidence of collaboration between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. (The commission, however, did find there had been contacts between Iraqis and al Qaeda members.) The commission's finding led Kerry to lay into Bush, claiming that he deceived both the Senate and the American public about the reasons for going to war in Iraq.

"It is clear that the president owes the American people a fundamental explanation about why he rushed to war for a purpose, that it now turns out, is not supported by the facts," Kerry told reporters at the Detroit airport. "I'm a citizen of the nation and a senator and in both respects I believe we were misled about this administration's intentions," he continued.

"This administration took its eye off al Qaeda, took its eye off of the real war on terror, which is in Afghanistan and northwest Pakistan and transferred it, for reasons of its own, to Iraq. And the American people are paying billions of dollars now because of that decision and, most importantly, American families and American soldiers are paying the highest price of all," he continued.

Despite the panel's finding, both Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney came out quickly to defend their position, putting them at odds with the commission, reports the Washington Post. "The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and al Qaeda is because there was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda," Bush said. But he denied reports that he led people to think that Saddam was partly responsible for the September 11 attacks. "This administration never said that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated between Saddam and al Qaeda," he said. "We did say there were numerous contacts between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda."

Cheney, meanwhile, did not mince words, "The fact of the matter is, the evidence is overwhelming," he said in an interview yesterday with CNBC's "Capital Report."

Kerry is in D.C. today attending a fundraiser at the DNC and making a speech on the minimum wage at Mt. Vernon College. There was some speculation that he might have another "meeting" with one of the VP types (Wes Clark?) but no sightings so far.

Meanwhile, Kerry plans to take a break from the Iraq debate this weekend in Nantucket where he will spend a couple of days with his family for Father's Day, reports the Nantucket Island Enquirer. In past years, Kerry has windsurfed from Hyannis to Nantucket on July 4, but this time he will fly to the island in style after campaigning in Washington on Friday.

Religion Round-Up: According to the Washington Times, John Kerry's advisers have told the senator to "steer clear" of religion after several Catholic bishops attacked Kerry's pro-abortion rights stance. The Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis has specifically said that he would only offer Kerry a blessing, not the communion wafer, because of his support of abortion. Other Catholic bishops, including Archbishop Sean O'Malley of Boston, have said that elected officials who support abortion should not be allowed to receive communion.

The Rev. Robert Drinan, a Jesuit who served in Congress during the 1970s and a Kerry adviser, said, "The mood now is to shut up" about the Communion controversy and make no comment on the issue. The only thing that John Kerry has said on the issue is that "We have a separation of church and state in the United States" and that Catholicism "is not defined by one issue."

The Times says that the Kerry campaign has sidelined its religious adviser, Mary Vanderslice, making her unavailable to the press even though she was giving interviews to USA Today earlier in June and wrote an article for the May issue of Sojourners.

Vanderslice had drawn the attention of the conservative Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights which has "mounted a public campaign against her, saying she spoke at a rally co-sponsored by the homosexual group AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (Act-Up) and should be 'working for Fidel Castro,'" reports the Times. In addition, Vanderslice received heavy publicity as an organizer of protests against the IMF and the World Bank that descended into violence during 2000 and 2002. Now, a Kerry campaign source says, "Every time something with religious language got sent up the flagpole [by Vanderslice], it got sent back down, stripped of religious language."

Former Clinton aides Paul Begala, John Podesta and Mike McCurry have also advised the campaign on religious issues.

In other religion and politics news, President Bush appeared live via satellite at the Southern Baptist Convention Thursday and encouraged the gathered pastors to do everything possible, short of risking their tax-exempt status, to help with the re-election effort, reports the New York Times. Ralph Reed, the former head of the Christian Coalition and now a Bush campaign official, told members that "Without advocating on behalf of any candidate or political party, you can make sure that everyone in your circle of influence is registered to vote."

Religious officials can make personal endorsements of candidates, but they cannot let political campaigning enter into the business of their church, synagogue, mosque, etc., or they risk losing their tax-exempt status. A recent Bush-Cheney campaign e-mail in Pennsylvania suggested supporters should distribute campaign pamphlets in "friendly congregations," a move that would compromise participating congregations' tax status.

When asked about the benefits the Bush campaign might receive from the Southern Baptists' voter registration efforts, Dr. Jack Graham, the current president of the Southern Baptist Convention, said, "You can connect the dots. I don't mind if you connect the dots. You can't separate what you believe from the political process." Graham also said, "I, for one, believe people of faith have the same rights to participate in the political process as any other citizens … Christians should not be treated as second-class citizens."

Jack Ryan Unsealed: On Thursday, Superior Court Judge Robert Schneider ordered the release of most of Republican Illinois Senate candidate Jack Ryan's divorce papers. These records could be potentially very damaging politically to the hopeful, according to the Chicago Tribune. Ryan, formerly married to the actress Jeri Ryan, had sought to keep many of the documents private to protect their 9-year-old son – not to mention his political future.

Attorneys for the Tribune and WLS-TV sued in Superior Court for the records to be released. Schneider acknowledged that the resulting publicity from the disclosure would be harmful to the couple's son but found, "In the end, the balance tips slightly to the public." Schneider continued, "They were aware they were in a public court system and protection from embarrassment cannot be a basis for keeping from the public what's put in public courts."

Specifically, papers concerning allegations the two made against each other in 1999 will be released. However, the court will keep certain documents sealed dealing with the welfare of the couple's son. The files will be released on June 29, 2004.

The political fallout from the papers may have an effect on the campaign. Sources from a private meeting Ryan had with leading Republicans said that the candidate explained that while 95 percent of the contents of the divorce file did not threaten his campaign, the remaining 5 percent could cause problems. Republicans are already clamoring to find out if they will be able to replace Ryan if his campaign collapses from the papers. Legal advice has come down from the Republican National Committee that the state party could replace him on the ticket if he decides to withdraw.

Ryan said at a press conference that the release of documents would create "no problems for the campaign," although he is already lagging far behind Democrat Barack Obama in the polls.

Nader Calls Debate Commission Tool of Corporate Duopoly: Ralph Nader, who has a history of suing the Commission on Presidential Debates, wasted no time in attacking their latest debate proposals. The commission announced Thursday that it would once again use the 15 percent national polling threshold criterion for inviting candidates to participate in the fall debates. This bar was met by "serious" third-party candidates George Wallace in 1968, John Anderson in 1980 and Ross Perot in 1992 and 1996, and the commission claims it is a good measure of whether the person has a realistic shot at getting elected.

"It's like sporting events," said commission co-chair Paul Kirk. The debates are like the World Series or the Super Bowl, they are the grand finale of the season when the field has been narrowed to the top contenders.

Nader, who is running in low-single digits in the polls, called the commission a "tool of Corporate Duopoly," referring to the fact that the panel is funded by corporate money and has standards that "shut out voices and choice" by stacking the decks for the two parties.

Nader is advocating a Citizens Debate Commission which announced six dates and sites earlier this year and pushed that idea when he met with John Kerry on May 19. The Kerry campaign is non-committal but most believe he is not eager to have Nader in the debates. No word so far from the Bush campaign.

Quote of the Day: "As you can tell, I'm on the short list," Rev. Al Sharpton, appearing with John Kerry Thursday on the flight to Detroit (CBS).