Washington Wrap

Dotty Lynch, Beth Lester, Clothilde Ewing and Allen Alter from the CBS News Political and Campaign '04 Units have the latest political news from Washington and from the trail:

Wednesday's Headlines

* Swift Boat Sinks Ginsberg
* Cheney Get Personal on Gay Marriage
* Republican Platform Heats Up
* Republicans in the 527 Game
* So Long, Farewell, Goodbye
* Kerry Talking Funny
* Edwards Won't Turn the Page

Ginsberg Out: In the latest Swift Boat Veterans for Truth twist, the chief national counsel for Bush-Cheney 04 campaign, Ben Ginsberg, has resigned from the campaign after it was revealed that he was also advising the SBVfT. Ginsberg, a well-connected DC lawyer, gave the group advice on complying with campaign finance laws, reports the New York Times. 527s, named for their place in the tax code, are by law prohibited from coordinating with campaigns.

Although Ginsberg claims his work for both sides was "fully appropriate and legal," he resigned from the Bush-Cheney effort on Wednesday morning. His statement read in part, "Unfortunately, this campaign has seen a stunning double standard emerge between the media's focus on the activities of 527s aligned with John Kerry and those opposed to him…I have decided to resign as National Counsel to your campaign to ensure that the giving of legal advice to decorated military veterans, which was entirely within the boundaries of the law, doesn't distract from the real issues upon which you and the country should be focusing."

Ginsberg is advising a host of Republican 527s, according to a May Roll Call article so it looks like he won't be out of work.

The Kerry camp (not surprisingly) does not think the resignation puts the issue to rest. The campaign issued a statement saying, "The sudden resignation of Bush's top lawyer doesn't end the extensive web of connections between George Bush and the group trying to smear John Kerry's military record...Now we know why George Bush refuses to specifically condemn these false ads. People deeply involved in his own campaign are behind them, from paying for them, to appearing in them, to providing legal advice, to coordinating a negative strategy to divert the public away from issues like jobs, health care and the mess in Iraq, the real concerns of the American people."

Scott Stanzel, a Bush spokesman, said on Tuesday night, "There has been no coordination at any time between Bush-Cheney '04 and any 527." And the Bush folks point out that Democratic lawyers Bob Bauer and Joe Sandler also advise 527 groups.

In other Swiftie news, although the conventional wisdom is that Kerry would like the controversy over his military records to go away quickly, the Kerry campaign itself is organizing an event on Wednesday that will surely keep the SBVfT in the headlines. Former Sen. Max Cleland, a decorated veteran who lost three limbs in Vietnam, will head to President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, on Wednesday to try to hand-deliver a letter to Bush. The letter, signed by Cleland and several other Vietnam vets who are supporting Kerry, reads in part, "We, the undersigned members of the United States Senate call on you to specifically condemn the recent attack ads and accompanying campaign which dishonor Senator John Kerry's combat record in the Vietnam War."

Cheney Gets Personal on Gay Marriage: Vice President Dick Cheney was asked about gay marriage on Tuesday at a town hall meeting in Iowa. CBS News' Josh Gross is traveling with the vice president and has the story.

Trail Byte: Lynn Karwoski, a small woman in a yellow dress, may have opened a large can of worms.

It's been a miasmic topic that has been hanging around the Cheney team since the President called for a constitutional amendment in February: how can the Vice President support a federal policy against same-sex marriage with a gay daughter who works on his own campaign staff?

"I would like to know, sir, from your heart -- I don't want to know what your advisors say, or even what your top advisor thinks -- but I need to know what do you think about homosexual marriages," Karwoski asked Cheney at a town hall meeting Q & A campaign stop in Davenport, Iowa.

When asked by reporters, the Vice President has previously answered the question by saying that he fully supports the President Bush and his policies. But Cheney was put on the spot Tuesday by someone who operates far outside the Washington press corps and his answer has caused an unwanted stir just before the Republican National Convention.

"Lynne and I have a gay daughter, so it's an issue that our family is very familiar with," Cheney responded in a rare public event where he acknowledged his daughter Mary's homosexuality.

"With respect to the question of relationships, my general view is that freedom means freedom for everyone," he continued. "People ought to be able to free -- ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to."

He then restated his belief that the issue would be best resolved by the individual states.

"But at this point, say, my own preference is as I've stated. But the President makes basic policy for the administration," the Vice President finished. "And he's made it clear that he does, in fact, support a constitutional amendment on this issue."

After the event, the Cheney camp tried to make clear that this was not a change in policy and provided quotes from past interviews to back up the claim.

Mary Cheney often travels with her father as a senior member of his campaign staff. She was spotted at the Davenport event during the Vice President's opening remarks, but had gone backstage by the time the question was asked. She seldom interacts with the media.

On Wednesday, the Vice President returns to Pennsylvania for his second bus trip in as many months. He'll visit Wilkes-Barre, Pottsville, and Bloomsburg before heading home to Washington. He'll spend the remainder of the week preparing for the Republican convention before heading to New York City this weekend.

The platform poses an interesting situation for Republicans who are trying to satisfy conservative activists without alienating moderates or swing voters. Platform Chair Bill Frist has been trying to keep the process low key but, as the AP reports, a draft of the platform, shown to delegates on the eve of hearings Wednesday, set up a noisy debate just days before the Republican National Convention.

The AP reports: "The party is putting forward moderate figures in most of its prominent convention speaking slots next week. But behind those faces is a struggle over party principles that Republicans who favor abortion rights and gay rights are hard-pressed to win…If the marriage plank is approved as expected, it would mark the first time the GOP has gone on record in its platform as supporting an amendment against those unions."

The noise-makers include the Log Cabin Republicans and Ann Stone, national chair of Republicans for Choice. Stone told the AP, "It was their chance to show George Bush as a uniter not a divider, but clearly they have failed."

But Chris Barron, the political director of the Log Cabin Republicans, took it a bit further telling CBS News that the party can't have it both ways, crafting a "viscous, mean spirited platform" and then "putting lipstick on the pig by putting Giuliani and Schwarzenegger, in prime time."

Barron also said that in the subcommittee meetings held Wednesday morning, language was inserted that would prevent benefits for any living arrangement outside of marriage, going even further than the president's own proposed amendment to ban same sex marriage.

Republicans in the 527 Game: The Progress for America Voter Fund, a 527 group launched in May, "by backers of President Bush has amassed a treasure chest of $35 million and plans a barrage of commercials criticizing Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry, even though the president this week denounced such outside organizations for running negative campaign ads," the Wall Street Journal reports.

According to the Journal, backers of the group include: Alex G. Spanos, owner of the San Diego Chargers football team, and Dawn Arnall, wife of the chairman of Ameriquest Capital Corp., a mortgage-financing company, who have each donated $5 million in personal funds to the group and who rank among President Bush's top donors and have been granted "Ranger" status by raising at least $200,000 for the Bush-Cheney campaign. Other supporters include Boone Pickens, president of Pickens Capital LLC, Carl H. Lindner Jr., chairman of American Financial Group, and Jerry Perenchio, chief executive of Univision Communications Inc., the Spanish-language television company.

In addition to the Progress for America group, another conservative group backed by the U.S. chamber of Commerce is expected to enter the fray this fall. On Tuesday, the new business-backed group called the November Fund said it planned to spend $10 million to attack Kerry and his running mate John Edwards on their record of opposing litigation reform.

So Long, Farewell, Goodbye: President Bush, like a lot of Americans, is packing up and bidding farewell to summer. CBS News' Mark Knoller reports:

Knoller Nugget: It's understandable if the President especially savors this day at his ranch: It's the last full day of his nine-day visit. He leaves first thing Thursday on a series of campaign trips leading up to his arrival next Wednesday in New York for the Republican National Convention.

The Bush campaign announced the president's political itinerary for the next week:

Thursday: Three stops in New Mexico
Friday: A rally in Miami
Saturday: A campaign bus tour through Ohio
Sunday: Wheeling, West Virginia
Monday: Nashua, New Hampshire and Detroit.
Tuesday: Addresses the American Legion Convention in Nashville and then attends a campaign event in Alleman, Iowa
Wednesday: A rally in Columbus, Ohio and arrives in New York City.
Thursday: Delivers acceptance speech at the GOP convention.

The Bush Campaign also announced the political figures who will accompany Mr. Bush during upcoming trips:

-Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani is with Mr. Bush in New Mexico
-Democratic US Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia, chosen to deliver the keynote address
at the GOP Convention next week, will be with the President in Miami on Saturday
-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney accompanies in New Hampshire on Monday
-And Arizona Sen. John McCain joins up with Mr. Bush on Tuesday in Nashville and Iowa.

At his ranch Tuesday, President Bush did pre-convention interviews with TIME and PEOPLE magazines.

And Talk about A Smear: When it comes to verbal assaults on President Bush, no political group can compete with the North Koreans.

Their official KCNA news agency referred to the American president on Tuesday as "a political idiot and human trash." A day earlier, a Foreign Ministry spokesman denounced Mr. Bush as "a tyrannical imbecile."

White House spokesman Scott McClellan dismissed the North Korean invective as the usual "bluster" from Pyongyang. And he said the US stands by its demand that North Korea end its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Tongue in cheek, he told the Daily Show's Jon Stewart that, after all these charges, he was not even sure he was in Vietnam. CBS News' Steve Chaggaris reports on the rest of Kerry's day in New York and Philadelphia.

Trail Bytes: In his two public speeches Tuesday, John Kerry took on the president and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, going so far as calling all the talk about his Vietnam service "pathetic."

He lobbed his first comment during remarks at the Cooper Union college in New York, saying, "The Bush campaign and its allies have turned to the tactics of fear and smear because they can't talk about jobs, health care, energy independence, and rebuilding our alliances."

That line turned out to be pale in comparison to what Kerry told a group of DNC donors at a $1.7 million evening fundraiser in Philadelphia hours later.

"It's become so petty it's almost pathetic in a way as I listen to these things," said Kerry about the criticism and allegations regarding his Vietnam record.

He added that he had a conversation with Rep. Chaka Fattah, D-Pa., who told Kerry he "keeps hearing these commentators, Republicans all of them, saying, 'Well, John Kerry was only in Vietnam for four months. Blah, blah, blah.'

"Well, I was there for longer than that number one," said Kerry. "Number two, I served two tours. Number three, they thought enough of my service to make me aide to an admiral," Kerry continued as he became more passionate in his defense of his service.

"And the Navy 35 years ago made the awards that it made through the normal process that they make. And I'm proud of them and I'm proud of my service and I'm proud that I stood up against the war when I came home because it was the right thing to do."

Later, he addressed the issue of his post-service protests, which the Swift Boat group has criticized in their second TV ad.

"You can judge my character," he told the crowd, by his opposition to the war. "Because when the times of moral crisis existed in this country, I wasn't taking care of myself, I was taking care of public policy. I was taking care of things that made a difference to the life of this nation."

"You may not have agreed with me but I stood up and was counted."

Trail Byte: Since Saturday, John Edwards has referenced the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads at nearly every campaign stop, hammering the president for not asking the Republican-friendly group to pull their controversial ads that questions John Kerry's military record.

At events in Ohio on Tuesday, Edwards continued raising the issue, calling the Bush/Cheney campaign one "based on fear and lies" and pointedly saying the president would be "held accountable by what's being done by his friends" in November.

At the same time, he said Americans were "sidetracked by some of these personal attacks that are going on," Edwards himself is adding to the distraction. At a Cleveland fundraiser Tuesday night, Edwards spent four minutes of a ten-minute-long speech addressing the ad controversy and defending Kerry's military record.

With the recent focus on advertisements and events occurring 35 years ago, even the candidate is getting sidetracked. Addressing members of the AFL-CIO in Columbus, Edwards pointed out that during the three weeks the ads have been running, other issues have been ignored. His example: four Ohio soldiers have "lost their lives in Vietnam," Edwards stated. "I mean in Iraq," he added quickly.

Brian Jones, a spokesman for the Bush campaign, insinuated in an email that the Kerry/Edwards focus on the SBVfT ad was to "rob the president of any pre-convention momentum" and that "The only campaign to make military service an issue is the Kerry campaign, which has repeatedly attacked President Bush's National Guard service."

Regardless of the genesis of the attacks, it's the voters who have to listen to all of the candidates and the media address the controversy. "I don't think the campaign is about what happened in Vietnam-I think the campaign is about working people here in the state of Ohio and the United States and I think that's what we should be focusing on," said Ohioan and Kerry/Edwards supporter Mike Thomas.

Dru Bagley, another Ohioan agreed. "They're bogged down by the wrong issues. They need to bring it back home and stick with the issues."

John Edwards is likely to speak about the ads again today at events in Ohio and Oklahoma.