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:

Thursday's Headlines

* Calling (Off) John McCain

* Cheney Goes Down

* GOP Platform Leaves Both Wings Unhappy

* Democrats' Have a Message for the GOP Convention

* Kerry Off To the Left Coast

* John Edwards Meet George Bush

Calling (Off) John McCain: President Bush called Sen. John McCain on Thursday from Air Force One and says he wants to work with him to pursue court action against political ads by "shadowy" outside groups.

CBS News Chief White House Correspondent John Roberts reports that "White House spokesman Scott McClellan today said that President Bush will ask a court to force the FEC to shut down 527 committees. McClellan further stated that if the courts refuse to act, the president is prepared to work with John McCain on new legislation to ban 527s."

McCain told the New York Times on Thursday that while he took the president at his word that he was not behind the Swift Boat advertisements, he is irked enough at them that he said he would personally "express my displeasure" to the president. McCain is a featured speaker at the GOP convention on Monday night and is about to get a lot of face time in the media.

CBS News' Mary Hager reports that McCain's conversations with both Bush and Kerry have had some effect and that the Kerry campaign is taking down its ad using John McCain. "We respect John McCain's wishes, and will stop running the ads of him challenging Bush to denounce the attacks on his service. It's long past time that George Bush also take John McCain's advice and do the right thing by putting an end to the smears and lies attacking John Kerry's military service. George Bush needs to say this is wrong, he needs to say it must end," said Kerry spokesman David Wade.

CBS News' Mark Knoller reports from the road that the president's vacation is truly over:

Knoller Nugget: It was the shortest summer vacation of his presidency. Just nine days and it's over as President Bush heads back to the campaign trail Thursday.

Between now and next Wednesday when he arrives in New York for the Republican Convention, candidate Bush will have campaigned in eight states -- most of them battlegrounds – which he won or lost by narrow margins four years ago.

None was more narrow that his first target Thursday, New Mexico, where he suffered an agonizing defeat to Al Gore in 2000 losing the state by just 366 votes. That's just 11 votes per county, and a third of a vote per precinct.

With that in mind, the Bush campaign has built what it calls "an unprecedented grass roots operation" in New Mexico to get out the vote for Mr. Bush on November 2nd.

The president does rallies in Las Cruces, Farmington and Albuquerque and is accompanied by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani who will help generate excitement for next week's convention where Giuliani will also speak.

As of Wednesday, a spokesman said the president was still working on his speech.

HOT RHETORIC

Hungry for news beyond the daily briefing by Scott McClellan, reporters, photographers and camera crews all but devoured former Senator Max Cleland as he tried to drop off a Kerry campaign protest letter at the Bush ranch Wednesday.

He didn't get past the security checkpoint a couple miles out, so he dropped by the Crawford Middle School where the White House press has its workspace. The school didn't want him inside, hoeing to keep politics away from the kids, so Cleland spoke to reporters in the parking lot.

Demanding that Mr. Bush do more to stop the Swift Boat Veterans group from running its ads questioning John Kerry's war record, Cleland said: "We want George Bush to put up or shut up. We want George Bush to stand up, come to the plate and say this is wrong."

The White House dismissed the visit as "a political stunt," and again denied Mr. Bush had anything to do with the ads.

However, earlier in the day, Bush Campaign National Counsel Benjamin Ginsberg resigned, after it was learned he was also giving legal advice to the veterans group behind the attack ads. He said his actions were both appropriate and legal.

Trail Byte: If Kate, Elizabeth, and Grace (ages nine, six and four, respectively) had seen the day's official schedule of grandpa/VP Dick Cheney, they may have opted out of the trip that saw him deliver his standard campaign speech in Wilkes-Barre, Pottsville and Bloomsburg, PA. But it's the unscheduled events that make for great stories once school starts in the fall.

The two-bus campaign motorcade, with accompanying staff, press and security vehicles made its first unplanned stop in Hazleton, PA Wednesday at a voter registration event. The kids were on stage, bouncing around with early morning energy as their "Grandfather of the United States" (as Lynne Cheney has called him) delivered a message on the importance of voting.

"If anybody tells you that your efforts don't matter, matter that you vote or get out and volunteer or contribute to the campaign, remember what happened four years ago," he urged the crowd of supporters.

A few hours later, after Pottsville event, the motorcade stopped in front of a fruit and vegetable stand. While the Vice President and his wife were shown the freshly picked goods, the girls had run across the street to feed a herd of cattle that had gathered to watch the commotion. With handfuls of hay provided by a local farmer, they were soon accompanied by their mother, Aunt Mary and grandparents who watched the dairy cows munch their lunch in amusement.

(For the record, Cheney bought apples, tomatoes, green peppers and 12 ears of corn from Paul Levan's Farmers Market)

After the last event, the press was told the Cheney family was planning to stop for dinner. Speculation was running high about which local Williamsport, Pa., diner or café would make the best campaign stop. It turns out when you're traveling with three children under the age of ten, nothing beats the all-American Ronald McDonald.

The vice president sat in the back of the McDonald's enjoying a green salad with chicken, surrounded by the girls as they ate their Happy Meals.

"Such will power," Lynne Cheney quipped about her husband's healthy choice.

Finally as the sun set, the motorcade pulled across the street and the VP attended the first few innings of a Little League World Series game between North Carolina and Texas. The girls, wrapped in blankets, witnessed Texas catcher Chance Murski hit a grand slam before all piling back into the buses bound for the airport, Air Force 2 and home.

A long day that will surely earn an "A" on the girls' How I Spent My Summer Vacation essays once school starts in a few weeks.

The New York Times reports that "In a statement, Richard Lessner, executive director of the American Conservative Union, called the platform 'a bland and uninspiring document" that lacked "solid conservative meat.' Although most conservatives enthusiastically support the lengthy platform section on fighting terrorism, Mr. Lessner said, its 'open-ended commitment' to keeping troops in Iraq and Afghanistan is troubling."

The Washington Post reports: "The platform committee chairman, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), acknowledged that some conservatives are displeased with the convention's prime-time lineup of speakers who support abortion rights and other moderate policies… 'This is our conservatives' first shot at the [platform] committee,' Frist said.

According to the Times, Paul S. Teller, legislative director of the conservative House Republican Study Committee, forwarded Lessner's statement adding: "It confirms, as was made so clear to me during the time of President Reagan's funeral and laying in state, that President Bush has no broad vision - and certainly no conservative vision - for the United States of America. All he has is a random assortment of policy prescriptions, many of which contradict one another. And let's not forget his primary goal on federal spending, to cut the deficit in half in five years. Wowwee."

With comments like this, it would seem as if the moderates would be pleased. But alas, they are not because conservative Republicans sharpened their opposition to gay marriage and amending the Constitution to ban abortion.

The moderate groups also failed to persuade platform writers to embrace what they called a "party unity plank," which would state that the party recognizes that "Republicans of good faith" may disagree with the planks on abortion, gay rights and other issues. Instead, delegates approved a more general declaration that the GOP is the "party of the open door" and it accepts members with "differing positions."

Message: Mission Not Accomplished: Although the Democratic convention is over and now it's the Republicans' turn, the Democratic National Committee is not going to keep quiet next week. At a press conference in Washington on Thursday, the DNC announced its not-so-subtle theme for the convention: MISSION NOT ACCOMPLISHED (all caps in the original). Said DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe, "So many missions for America's families were not accomplished in the last four years. And this time there's no one for George Bush to blame - but himself." The Democrats will take the MNA message and apply it to various themes like health care and education.

The Dems also announced who will be carrying the MNA banner up in New York. Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack will lead the effort along with McAuliffe. And making many public appearances will be New York's two Senators, Charles Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton and former Air Force Chief of Staff General Merrill A. McPeak. Other surrogates include Reps. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Charlie Rangel and Ciro Rodriquez. Each day, the Democrats will host a press conference and also a major visibility event to try to entice the thousands of journalists in town to cover the Republicans.

Kerry Off To the Left Coast: John Kerry has one more event in the heartland, in Anoka Minnesota to be precise and then goes off to LA and San Francisco. CBS News' Steve Chaggaris reports on Kerry's day in Green Bay, Wisconsin where he had a few fumbles:

Trail Byte: John Kerry made his third visit to Green Bay, Wisconsin this year on Wednesday and made a point of focusing on the city's main theme: football and the Green Bay Packers.

En route to a "front porch" event (which took place in a 'backyard'), Kerry stopped at West High School and spent about an hour with the football team, which was practicing for this week's game. Eventually, he lined up at quarterback and ran a few plays, with his final play turning into a bit of a disaster.

Kerry described it later saying, "I got to run through a couple of plays and on one, my pitch-off sort of got fumbled ... so I grabbed the ball as fast as I could, fell on it and rolled over."

During the "front porch" event, Kerry spoke to a crowd of about 100 local residents in the yard of supporter Susan Laabs and, fully realizing where he was, strategically referenced Hall of Fame Packers coach Vince Lombardi three separate times during his remarks.

"Vince Lombardi said that who we are is really measured by what you do with what you have. And we can do more with what we have in this country," said Kerry at one point.

Unfortunately, during the event, Kerry fumbled for a second time, though this one didn't involve a football. While taking questions, he referred to the legendary Packers stadium, Lambeau Field (so named for 39 years) as "Lambert Field."

If the voters catch wind of that gaffe, it could take Kerry another three visits to Green Bay to make up for it.

Trail Byte: John Edwards creatively segued from the Swift Boat ads controversy to issues facing the African-American community when he spoke at a town hall meeting to mostly black voters on Cleveland's east side Wednesday.

"We didn't care where somebody came from, we didn't care what the color of your skin was-- we were all in the same boat together and we were looking out for each other," Edwards said, paraphrasing Kerry's description of his fellow Swift Boat veterans.

With that brief introduction, the senator meandered through the ticket's record on race, also speaking about affirmative action and predatory lending. To the crowd's delight, Edwards then mentioned Bill Clinton, also known as the country's "first black president." He made a similar reference to a mostly black crowd in New Orleans last week.

When the town hall opened for questions, one preacher pointed out that Edwards was right next door to the projects and spoke on behalf of an under-represented constituency. "What is your campaign doing to win that vote, the corner vote what we label as drug dealers and the corner vote what we label as the lost generation?"

The ever-optimistic senator asked community leaders like the preacher "for your help to reach out to the very folks you're asking about," obviously feeling every vote really does count this year in the battleground state of Ohio.

Many of the questioners asked about the probation and parole systems and Edwards diligently answered the same question twice on expunging prior records. Finally, Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones grabbed a microphone, and declared there were other issues out there and asked those interested in that subject to "hold up."

Following the town hall, Edwards held a rally in Warren, Ohio, where he appealed to the labor workers in the crowd as opposed to the "drug dealer" vote. Edwards later raised $500,000 at an Oklahoma City fundraiser before heading to New Mexico, the third state of the day. On Thursday, Edwards will share the state with President Bush and hold a rally in Mesilla, New Mexico.