Washington Wrap
Dotty Lynch, Beth Lester, and Clothilde Ewing of the CBS News Political Unit have the latest from the nation's capital.
Friday's Headlines
* Kerry Tries to Turn Back To The Economy
* Olympic Politics
* FEC on 527s
* Bush Lying Low in Crawford
* McGreevey Still On the Job
Kerry's Tries to Turn Conversation Back to the Economy: John Kerry is in North Carolina this morning where he held a "Conversation" with laid-off workers. He then travels to Florida to tour the damage left by Hurricane Charley. He will overnight in Pittsburgh. But the controversy about who did what in those Swift Boats thirty years ago continues.
The anti-Kerry 527,
released a second ad today, "Sell Out" featuring Kerry's Senate testimony about atrocities in Vietnam and charges that he betrayed and dishonored his country. The ad was produced by the Republican media firm, Stevens, Reed and Curcio and won't begin running until next Tuesday, although they made the ad available to the media on Friday. A new Annenberg poll shows that talk radio and cable TV boosted public awareness of the ad, which had a small actual buy. Here's the script:John Kerry: "They had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads. . ."
Joe Ponder: "The accusations that John Kerry made against the veterans who served in Vietnam was just devastating."
John Kerry: ". . . randomly shot at civilians. . ."
Joe Ponder: "It hurt me more than any physical wounds I had."
John Kerry: ". . . cut off limbs, blown up bodies. . ."
Ken Cordier: "That was part of the torture, was, uh, to sign a statement that you had committed war crimes."
John Kerry: ". . . razed villages in a fashion reminiscent of Ghengis Khan. Paul Gallanti: "John Kerry gave the enemy for free what I, and many of my, uh, comrades in North Vietnam, in the prison camps, uh, took torture to avoid saying. It demoralized us."
John Kerry: ". . . crimes committed on a day to day basis. . . "
Ken Cordier: "He betrayed us in the past, how could we be loyal to him now?"
John Kerry: ". . . ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam."
Paul Gallanti: "He dishonored his country, and, uh, more, more importantly the people he served with. He just sold them out."
Announcer: "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth is responsible for the content of this advertisement."
Kerry heard some more encouraging words on Thursday. CBS News' Eric Salzman reports:
Trail Byte: When the Democratic presidential nominee arrived at his hotel in downtown Charlotte, N.C., on Thursday night he was greeted by a lobby full on enthusiastic supporters. Kerry didn't disappoint - he shook hands, greeted voters, and even jumped up on the front counter to show his appreciation. And the room loved him for it.
"I got to shake his hand," shrieked one older woman.
But a few blocks away, at an even larger gathering not staffed by a portion of Kerry's advance team, East Coast Entertainment was throwing it's weekly Thursday "Sin or City after 5" outdoor happy hour. Every Thursday in the summer, hundreds of young professionals gather in downtown Charlotte for beer, festival food, and live music - this particular time, a Guns 'n' Roses cover band.
Finding a Kerry supporter in the crowd was no easy task. There was Katie, serving the beer, a 22 year old who planned to vote for Kerry ... but then ...
"It's all about money," said Tim, a 35 year old Charlotte resident. Tim said he agrees with Kerry on social issues, but believes the Democrat will raise his taxes, so come November, he's casting a vote for Bush.
"Kerry's gonna raise taxes right away," agreed 24 year old Joe who works in sales and marketing. Joe said he can't stand Kerry and especially likes Vice President Dick Cheney - he'll be voting for the Bush ticket.
28 year-old investment adviser David said he is a "Republican by trade" and liked Bush on "the war thing."
Joey, a 26 year-old plaintiff's attorney, is leaning toward Bush but says he is undecided - largely because of Kerry's running mate. As a fellow North Carolina trial lawyer, John Edwards appeals to Joey. But in a nod to the way the Swift Boat Veterans ads attacking John Kerry's Vietnam service may be working, Joey said he had a problem with Kerry's medals. To be sure, he appreciates Kerry served in the military - he just thinks the candidate is talking about it too much.
Earlier in the day at a front porch event in Derry, New Hampshire, Kerry had been talking about prescription drugs and President Bush's seemingly wavering position on the issue of importation.
"He can't even make up his mind about importing drugs from Canada," Kerry said of the President. Kerry said he worked in the Senate to get importation into a bill, but was thwarted by the administration.
Olympic Politics: 527s have made their way into the Olympics. Bush-Cheney is already up with an Olympic ad and now a new group, "Win Back Respect," is going on the air with an ad inspired by the games in Athens. The 527 is a who's who of prominent foreign policy Democrats including former Sen. Gary Hart, former national security adviser Anthony Lake and former top Gore foreign policy advisor Leon Fuerth. As the Washington Post reports, the group will begin running an ad that features a "lifelong Republican" who lost his son-in-law on September 11. The man, Wright Salisbury says, "There was a tremendous amount of sympathy for America and for what we suffered ... George Bush, frankly, has squandered it. I think our friends and allies would be willing to help us in a war on terror, but we've been pushing them away."
A spokesman for the Win Back Respect, former Wes Clark staffer Matt Bennett, told the Post the ad was a response to a Bush-Cheney ad that plays on the Olympics. That ad, "Victory," refers to Afghanistan and Iraq and the narrator says, "this Olympics, there will be two more free nations -- and two fewer terrorist regimes." In a statement, Hart called the Bush ad "shameless" but in some ways, "it is appropriate -- George Bush has executed a perfect back-flip -- taking the goodwill and solidarity of the world and turning it into disillusionment and disdain."
FEC Rules On 527s: In a major development on the funding of the 527 groups, the Federal Election Commission has decided to change the rules, effective starting in 2005. 527s have spent millions of dollars this cycle, mostly in soft money, supporting federal candidates. Specifically, 527s like the Media Fund and ACT have stepped in to support Democratic messages (and attack the President) as the Kerry campaign tries to conserve its cash.
The FEC's changes would also effect right-leaning 527s like Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (if it still exists in 2005), which is taking on the controversial issue of John Kerry's military record, a subject the Bush campaign is reluctant to touch. The new FEC regulations, which are appropriately complex, do two major things.
The FEC's ruling, although not effective for this cycle, will fundamentally change how 527s operate. Although some campaign finance advocates do not think the ruling went nearly far enough, the FEC's decision will prevent the $1, $5, and $10 million checks that are the backbone of this cycle's 527 activity.
Bush in Crawford: President Bush is in Crawford, Tex., trying to stay out of the Path of the Swift Boat controversy. CBS News' Mark Knoller is there, too:
Knoller Nugget: On Thursday, the White House fired back at John Kerry, denying his charge that the Bush campaign was in some way linked to the group questioning Kerry's war record.
"Senator Kerry knows that his latest attack is false and baseless," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.
McClellan would not say the President condemns the specific ad in question. But the spokesman said Mr. Bush condemns "all of the ads" by those the White House views as "shadowy groups" using sums of unregulated political money.
Briefing reporters in Crawford, Texas on Thursday, McClellan portrayed President Bush as the most aggrieved party in this matter - saying he's been the target of $62 million of "negative false attacks" in ads by anti-Bush political groups.
McClellan challenged Kerry to join the President in shutting down the operations of these groups - which Mr Bush thought were barred by the campaign finance bill he signed into law.
As for the attacks on Kerry's military service in Vietnam, McClellan said neither the White House nor the Bush Campaign will raise questions about it. "We haven't and we won't," he said.
Mr. Bush remained remains out of sight at his ranch. McClellan said the president received his usual national security briefing Thursday – and also went for a bike ride. He continues to work on the acceptance speech he'll deliver to the Republican National Convention on September 2.
McGreevey Fighting Fire: Efforts to force Gov. James E. McGreevey to leave office earlier than his self-imposed resignation date of Nov. 15 appeared to collapse on Thursday, as Democratic leaders indicated they feared an increasingly personal fight with the governor, reports the New York Times. According to state Democratic leaders, the governor's supporters have gone on the offensive against those who are trying to force him to leave sooner as evidenced in a local television report.
The Times reports: "On Wednesday, six days after Mr. McGreevey said he would resign because of an extramarital affair with another man, Channel 2 reported that an unnamed administration official was warning United States Representative Robert Menendez to stop criticizing Mr. McGreevey because Mr. Menendez himself had engaged in an affair. The official cited in the Channel 2 report accused Mr. Menendez of setting the woman up in business and referring clients to her."
Menendez's aides denied he showed favoritism to the woman but declined to discuss the matter in detail. But by Thursday, Menendez, who had been pressing behind the scenes all week for McGreevey's immediate resignation seemed to cave and released a statement saying that he would support his decision to remain in office until Nov. 15 and avoid a special election. Menendez's decision came just a day after Sen. Jon S. Corzine announced that he would not press the governor to leave early.
So now that he's warded off most of his Democratic opponents, McGreevey is rushing to finish six to nine months of work in just 88 days, reports the New Jersey Star Ledger. Among other issues, he wants to choose a management team to run the new stem-cell research institute and finish reviews of residential and commercial projects worth billions of dollars under planned for the state.
The Ledger reports: "He also has his staff examining what ethics reforms he can impose by executive order, two officials said. 'Is there something that can be done to free the state from the power of the party bosses?' one administration official said. While Democrats passed two dozen government ethics laws earlier this year, the official said, 'one could argue we're more free to do it now.'"
"'It is liberating not to have electoral or political considerations, and just to focus on governing,' said McGreevey spokesman Micah Rasmussen. He said the governor 'finds it very liberating to not be beholden to the party bosses.'"
And, lucky for him, most of what he'd like to do can be accomplished by executive action, with no need to win approval from the Legislature or anyone else.
Quote of the Day: "I've got a lot of work, and this is my priority…I'm not a delegate to the convention. My purpose to go to a convention would be to show my support and love for my brother and help him. There are other ways I can do that, but that's secondary right now to the duties I have as governor." --Florida Gov. Jeb Bush saying he may skip the GOP Convention to deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Charley. (Tallahassee Democrat)