Washington Wrap
Dotty Lynch, Douglas Kiker, Steve Chaggaris and Clothilde Ewing of The CBS News Political Unit have the latest from the nation's capital.
Dems Try Their Own "Recall": Some influential Democrats, including former White House press secretary Joe Lockhart and consultant Mike Lux, are trying to "recall" George W. Bush, though not literally.
The Constitution doesn't allow for the recall of the president, but the Fair and Balanced PAC has set up a website, www.bushrecall.org, to campaign against Mr. Bush in 2004. The PAC wants to point out that the reasons recall supporters are using to try to oust California Gov. Gray Davis can be used against the president, too.
"What we hope to do is to remind people that all of the things that are being said about Gray Davis as the reasons for the recall can be applied to George Bush," Lux told the AP Wednesday. "For example, they say Davis turned big surpluses into deficits in a matter of a couple of years. That's the same thing that happened with George Bush."
The Bush campaign would not comment.
The website features an open letter to Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who spearheaded the recall effort in California, and it also highlights some of Issa's quotes for justifying the recall.
The PAC, which is soliciting hard-money donations of up to $5,000, is just one of several new groups trying to make up for the loss of soft (or unlimited and unregulated) money due to the new campaign finance laws.
That's The Good Card: The New York Post reports that a Manhattan travel agency has sued Democratic presidential candidate Al Sharpton and his National Action Network for almost $200,000 in travel expenses. The agency's suit alleges that Sharpton and NAN used "fraudulent credit-card information" to run up bills of $193,131 between May 2001 and August 2002.
The alleged stiffing took place before Sharpton threw his hat into the political ring.
Sharpton's lawyer, Sanford Rubinstein, tells the Post that it's the Alpha International Travel Agency that's in the wrong. Rubinstein claims the agency tried to put the National Action Network's charges on Sharpton's personal credit card.
"It's outrageous they would use it because they never had any permission to," Rubinstein said, adding that he's considering asking the district attorney to file a complaint against the travel agency for "their fraudulent attempt to bill" Sharpton personally.
Rubinstein also claims the National Action Network has refused to pay the bill because it was not itemized and contained an entire year's worth of charges. The NAN, he says, "has been trying to get an itemization of this bill to resolve this matter but they've never provided us with one."
The travel agency's president, Colin Hall, says the NAN has had the itemization and that he got Sharpton's credit card information from the good reverend himself.
In a statement, Sharpton said that he believes the agency's claims won't hold water. "Some vendors feel that my run for president will intimidate me or the national action network into paying bogus bills," he said.
If Alpha wins its suit against Sharpton, it shouldn't go looking to his presidential campaign for the dough. In his June 30 filing with the FEC, Sharpton has an embarrassing $12,061 cash on hand – at the bottom of the barrel of Democratic candidates – but that hasn't stopped him from staying at various Ritz Carltons and Four Seasons hotels as a candidate.
Show Me The Money: In a quest to win the Democratic money race, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., is planning a fundraising blitz of 25 events throughout the country next month. According to the Boston Herald, Kerry is organizing several events, which will be held after he formally announces his bid for the White House during a four-day trip through key primary states beginning Labor Day.
Unlike the Bush campaign, Kerry is offering bargain basement prices of $25 to $200 a head to events set for New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Houston and Boston. Kerry's also hitting up the designer shoppers, beginning with a Nantucket Supporters Weekend on Sept. 5-7, for supporters pledging to raise $10,000 or more for his presidential bid. Those who pay the big bucks will be treated to a cocktail party at his wife's Nantucket mansion and a clambake at the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport. Kerry's national finance chairman, Louis Susman, who also happens to be the vice chairman of Salomon Smith Barney, will also hold an island event.
While Kerry's Democratic rival Howard Dean has been focusing on the Internet, Kerry is utilizing more traditional fundraising techniques. Kerry is hitting up his broad network of financial backers in the hope of winning the third-quarter fund-raising period that ends Sept. 30.
Quote of the Day: "I told Warren if he mentions Prop. 13 one more time, he has to do 500 push-ups." – Arnold Schwarzenegger on his economics adviser Warren Buffet's not-so-politically-astute comments to the Wall Street Journal last week that California should consider raising property tax rates. (Contra Costa Times).