Washington Wrap

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

Friday's Headlines

* Democrats Unite

* Bush Kicks off Bush/Cheney '04, Again

* Another Week, Another Comment from McCain

* Nader in Bush's Backyard

* Not-So-Good Poll Numbers for Specter in Pennsylvania

* John Kerry, Mountain Man

Democrats Unite To Praise Kerry (and Raise Money): On March 25, the Democratic National Committee's annual gala will bring together party luminaries including former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter to raise money for this year's standard bearer, John Kerry. The annual dinner has already raised $10.3 million, more than double 2000's record of $4.3 million, reports the Washington Post.

CBS News has learned that tickets to the dinner are $1,000, with various levels of "chairs" raising up to $250,000. The dinner will be followed by an after party at the night club Dream, where donors of a lesser stripe can pay $50 a piece to mingle with party big wigs and dance in a decidedly less formal atmosphere. Al Gore was invited to attend but he is not coming, CBS News has learned, preventing another picture of Gore doing the Macarena.

The DNC gala is part of a $100 million fundraising drive being coordinated by the Kerry campaign and the DNC. The Kerry campaign will use a 20-city fundraising tour that begins at the end of next week to reach a goal of raising $80 million. Also getting in on the action is Bill Clinton, who signed an Internet solicitation last week that aims to bring in $10 million leading up to the unity dinner.

The DNC, which will have $25 million at the end of the month, has set up a "Bring Down King George" program. It ranges from $1,000 raisers who become members of the "Minuteman Corps" and get "a limited edition ePatriot lapel pin"' to those who raise $10,000 to join "Paul Revere's Midnight Riders" and "earn a phone briefing with DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe"; to $100,000 fundraisers who become "DNC Patriots" and "qualify for a host of benefits at the Democratic National Convention in Boston," reports the Post.

Kerry's former rivals are also helping out. Seven of the nine candidates will attend the gala dinner (Dennis Kucinich will not be there and Carol Moseley Braun has not confirmed). Former Dean campaign chairman Steve Grossman told the Post, that "16 top fundraisers, most of them Jewish, held a conference call this week to finalize plans to raise several million dollars for Kerry." Last week, both Howard Dean and John Edwards pledged to help Kerry raise money, with Edwards bringing together 100 of his top fundraisers to meet with Kerry.

Bush Kicks Off Political Season, Again: President Bush is headed to Florida on Saturday for the official kickoff rally of the Bush/Cheney '04 national campaign. Although Bush has attended a number of Bush/Cheney fundraisers this season, the rally at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando will be his first official, official campaign rally. According to CBS News Early Show contributor Craig Crawford, Bush "scrambles into Florida on Saturday in the wake of internal campaign polling that shows him losing ground in the Sunshine State."

Although an estimated 12,000 supporters are expected at the city's convention center, Crawford advises this may not have been the best scheduling decision with the NCAA basketball regional playoffs occurring a few miles away, Tiger Woods bidding to win his fifth straight championship at Arnold Palmer's golf tournament in Orlando, and thousands of college students celebrating Spring Break in the state.

Aside from the president himself, the Republicans are bringing out what they hope will be another draw, "Reggie the Registration Rig," the RNC's voter registration 18-wheeler which will travel the country to register voters. Reggie is part of the RNC's grassroots effort to register three million new voters by November.

John Kerry is scheduled to be in Orlando on April 20 for his own campaign rally.

McCain Strong on Defense of Kerry: The unified Republican voice against presidential nominee John Kerry was broken a bit on Thursday when Sen. John McCain appeared on CBS' Early Show to defend his Senate colleague against charges by Dick Cheney that Kerry is weak on defense.

"I don't think that. I think that John Kerry is a good and decent man. . . . I think he has different points of view on different issues, and he will have to explain his voting record. But this kind of rhetoric, I think, is not helpful in educating and helping the American people make a choice." McCain said.

Known for his candor, McCain said, "I decry this negativism that's going on on both sides. The American people don't need it, and the end result will be lower voter turnout, particularly amongst younger Americans."

The Washington Post reports that although McCain reiterated his support of President Bush's reelection bid, Democrats welcomed Thursday's remarks in a week the Bush-Cheney campaign "sharpened its attacks on Kerry's record on military and diplomatic matters."

Despite his support of the Iraq War, McCain has criticized Bush on tax cuts, global warming, and prescription drug benefits. The New York Times suggests that it is for these reasons McCain was recently appointed by Bush to the commission to investigate the quality of intelligence used to justify the Iraq War, "a move variously interpreted as an effort to muzzle Mr. McCain on a volatile topic."

In Bush's Backyard: Ralph Nader is in a big race right now - a race against time to get his name on ballots across the country. On Friday and Saturday he will head to President Bush's backyard in Texas. On Friday, Nader is scheduled to speak at the University of Texas at San Antonio and then he travels to Austin where he will attend a petition kickoff rally and a concert with local musicians. On Saturday, Nader plans to stop in Crawford to join peace activists opposed to the Iraq War at a United for Peace and Justice Rally before he heads to Dallas for a fundraiser.

Debbie Russell, Nader's Austin-San Antonio Regional Coordinator, explains to CBS News why Texas and why now. "Our drive is one of the first windows," she says. "We have a short window and so we've got to get him out there." Nader needs nearly 65,000 signatures from people who did not vote in either major Party primary, by May 10, in order to qualify for the November ballot as an independent.

Specter in Trouble?: There's some troubling news on the poll front for Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Penn., who's locked in a primary fight with conservative Rep. Pat Toomey for the GOP nomination.

Democrats, who've effectively nominated Rep. Joseph Hoeffel to run against Specter or Toomey, hope that the intra-GOP squabble will allow them to get a foothold with general election voters.

The latest Quinnipiac University poll of Pennsylvania voters found Specter's approval rating dropping from 53 percent to 46 percent since February. Worse, only 36 percent of Keystone State voters want Specter to be re-elected in November. Forty-four percent want a new senator.

This comes on the heels of a pair of polls – one by Survey USA and another done for the anti-tax group Club for Growth – that showed Toomey within ten points of Specter in the primary fight.

The Pennsylvania poll comes at a time when analysts believe that Democrats stand a betters chance at taking control of the U.S. Senate in November than they did as recently as a few weeks ago, Knight-Ridder reports.

Knight-Ridder reports: "Victory is still an uphill climb for (the Democrats). But if they can hold some of five Southern seats where veteran Democrats are retiring and pick up a couple more in states where Republicans are stepping down, such as Colorado, Illinois and Oklahoma, they could eke out a narrow majority and reclaim the control they lost in 2002.

"Though overshadowed by the presidential campaign, the contest for control of the Senate will have major consequences for whoever wins the White House, particularly if it's President Bush. A Democratic Senate would have virtual veto power over his agenda, from new tax cuts to appointments to the federal judiciary."

Kerry Hits the Slopes, Literally: Reporters got a taste on Thursday of what a President John Kerry vacation might look like, and it was a far cry from clearing brush in Texas on an August afternoon.

CBS News' Steve Chaggaris reports that Kerry, taking a few days off from the campaign trail to hit the slopes in tony Sun Valley, Idaho – where his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, maintains one of her many fabulous residences – decided to snowboard instead of ski on Thursday on Mount Baldy.

Trailed by Secret Service agents and pool reporters on skis, Kerry made several runs. On his second, he had a run-in with another skier, which left the famously competitive Kerry none-too-pleased.

"I don't fall," Kerry said, using an expletive to describe the skier he said ran into him.

Chaggaris reports that Kerry's wife didn't join him on his snowboarding exhibition, instead choosing to ski her favorite neighboring trail, the Flying Squirrel. Incidentally, she named her private jet after the trail, she confirmed to reporters today, after months of trying to figure out the origin of her plane's name.

After a couple hours of skiing, Kerry lunched in the lodge and on his way out, spotted the press corps and stopped to chat. He said he felt "great" and talked about how he planned to spend the day getting a little work done and reading at the house. He also previewed his day Friday saying he was going to go mountain climbing in the morning and head back on the slopes for some skiing later. He mentioned how he wanted to go back out snowboarding today but had "remind myself I have five days" of vacation left.

Quote of the Day: "I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it" -- John Kerry in "an updated" version of the Bush-Cheney "Troops" ad airing in West Virginia.