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.

Monday's Headlines

* Kerry Under the Knife

* Karen Hughes Returns to the Public Stage

* Media Fund enters the Tax War

* Karl Rove's Not-So-Relaxing Sunday

* Kerry Veepstakes Update

* Nader Asks to meet with Kerry

Kerry to Have Shoulder Surgery: With presumptive Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry set to have surgery on his shoulder this Wednesday, the Kerry campaign will be releasing a new letter that summarizes the Senator's health, CBS News has learned. The letter, similar to one released when the Senator underwent prostate surgery last year, will show that Kerry is in great health according to Kerry campaign spokesperson Stephanie Cutter. She tells CBS News he is in "a good state of health. He's very fit." It's unclear how much specific detail the letter will include.

The Kerry campaign also plans to walk journalists through the ins-and-outs of shoulder surgery in a conference call with Dr. Bertram Zarins, Patriots doctor and chief of sports medicine service at Massachusetts General Hospital. The conference call will take place Monday or Tuesday of this week. Kerry "hurt his shoulder last summer in a bike riding accident. He aggravated it in January in Iowa while he was standing in the aisle of his campaign bus and he grabbed onto the overhead bin when the bus stopped short," reports CBS News Steve Chaggaris.

The shoulder injury is the latest in a string of mostly minor health problems that the avid bike riding, snowboarding, windsurfing, football-throwing Kerry has faced on the campaign trail. Although the Senator is "unusually fit" for a 60-year old, reports the Washington Post, "For much of this year, Kerry has curtailed speaking and sipped hot lemon tea to nurse a voice strained by hacking and yakking. In mid-February, he described the ailment to reporters as a 'chest thing' and griped about its persistence." Reports the Post, "In the past, Kerry battled bouts of pneumonia, and Newsweek recently suggested the decorated veteran may have been exposed to Agent Orange when he skippered a patrol craft through the Mekong Delta." Although Kerry dismissed the idea that he has a "Cheney problem," the Kerry team's moves to provide reporters with more evidence of his robust health could easily be interpreted as a pre-emptive strike.

Hughes Returns: All-in-all, it's been a tough slog for the White House since presidential adviser Karen Hughes left the administration and moved to Austin in order to spend more time with her family. But, fret not, she's back.

The New York Times reports: "She is coming back, and as far as the battered White House is concerned, it is not a moment too soon."

While Hughes won't be returning to Washington, she will take a far more active, public role in Bush's re-election effort, including using her six-week book publicity tour for "Ten Minutes from Normal" as a platform to defend and prop up President Bush, with whom she has a famously close relationship stemming from her days as his top gubernatorial aide. The New York Times reports what the campaign told CBS News months ago: that Hughes will start traveling with the president full-time in August and will continue to do so until Election Day.

Hughes' impending return, just as her departure did, is sure to prompt speculation about infighting between her and White House aide Karl Rove. The Times says that, "In 2004, as in 2000, Mr. Rove will remain on the ground handling strategy while Ms. Hughes will be up in the air with the candidate — a distance that seems to suit everyone."

The Times says that despite living away from Washington for almost two years, Hughes' influence does not appear to have waned. "To the surprise of those who predicted that Ms. Hughes's influence would wane in proportion to her distance from the Oval Office — and that Mr. Rove would grow all the more powerful — the reality is that she is returning more powerful than ever. Despite giving up her official capacity as counselor to the president, Ms. Hughes continued to advise Mr. Bush from Austin. They talk several times a week, and the president regularly asks in meetings, the Bush adviser said, 'Has anybody asked Karen about this?'"

"Unlike Mr. Rove, who has become a lightning rod for criticism of the administration's aggressive political operation, Ms. Hughes is the smiling, media-savvy White House representative whose book now wraps her — and, by implication, the president — in the heroism of motherhood," The Times explains.

Since leaving the White House, Hughes has been in daily – and sometimes more than daily – contact with both the White House and the re-election campaign. The Times wries, "Bush advisers describe her as doing what she likes best — helping to shape the president's words and the overall message out of the White House — without the daily headaches of her old job, which required her to manage a staff of 43 in the White House communications, speech writing and news media offices."

Fund-ing the Tax War: Vice President Dick Cheney in a speech before the Chamber of Commerce Monday "scoffed at John Kerry's promise to scrap only the Bush tax cuts that benefit top income-earners," the AP reports. He says voters should check Kerry's campaign promises against his Senate record of voting to raise taxes for "virtually every income group."

Entering into the fray from the other side, the Democratic-leaning 527 organization the Media Fund will begin running ads Monday in 17 states touting John Kerry's record on taxes. The ad, appropriately called "Tax Cuts," begins with upbeat music and a series of happy images as the narrator explains, "The issue: Tax cuts for the middle class. John Kerry voted to eliminate the marriage penalty, and for an increased child tax credit. The Kerry economic plan: roll back tax cuts for the wealthiest one percent; helping pay for a middle class tax cut; don't reward corporations that export jobs overseas." The ad then switches to a slower, gloomier version of the same music and intones, "George Bush? He raided social security to pay for a tax cut for millionaires. And he supported tax breaks for companies that export jobs. Bush's priorities won't strengthen America."

The ad is the third spot produced by the Media Fund. The ad will run as part of a $3 million buy that began March 24 and will last for approximately one week, CBS News has learned. This brings the Media Fund's total ad spending to over $8 million, including $5,925,000 spent on the first two ads according to figures compiled by the Wisconsin Advertising Project.

Karl Rove's Unwelcome House Guests: The Washington Post reports that "several hundred people stormed the small yard of President Bush's chief political strategist, Karl Rove, Sunday afternoon, pounding on his windows, shoving signs at others and challenging Rove to talk to them about a bill that deals with educational opportunities for immigrants."

The Post reports that the protest was organized by "National People's Action, a coalition of neighborhood advocacy groups based in Chicago. Leaders said they want Bush to advocate for the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, a bill that would permit immigrants who have lived in the United States for at least five years to apply for legal resident status once they graduate from high school. The measure would eliminate provisions of current federal law that discourage states from providing in-state tuition to undocumented student immigrants."

The Post reports that the demonstrators, "grew more aggressive, fanning around the three accessible sides of Rove's house, tracking him through the many windows, waving signs that read "Say Yes to DREAM" and pounding on the glass. At one point, Rove rushed to a window, pointed a finger and yelled something inaudible. Shortly thereafter, sirens shot through the neighborhood and Secret Service agents and D.C. police joined the crowd on the lawn. Rove opened his door long enough to talk to an officer, and the crowd serenaded them with a stanza of 'America the Beautiful.'"

The Post reports that, "after about 30 minutes of goading by protesters in English and Spanish, Rove agreed to meet with two members of the coalition on the condition that the rest of the protesters board their buses and leave his street. The group obliged. Rove opened his garage door and allowed Emira Palacios and Inez Killingsworth to enter. The meeting lasted two minutes and ended with Rove closing the garage door on Palacios while she was still talking. Palacios said that Rove was "very upset" and was "yelling in our faces" and that Rove told them "he hoped we were proud to make his 14-year-old and 10-year-old cry."

Veepstakes Talk Heats Up: Former Treasury Secretary Bob Rubin says he wouldn't make a good VP selection for presumptive Democratic nominee John Kerry, the French newspaper La Tribune reports. "It's not a good idea," Rubin said.

"It has to be someone who would have a great experience in electoral politics," Rubin said. "I don't think that is in my temperament."

Meanwhile, a man who many suspect would jump at the chance to be Kerry's running mate got some kind – and clever words – from the Massachusetts senator on Sunday while he campaigned in St. Louis.

"If I have my way, I will be finding some way, somehow that this man continues in public service," Kerry said of his vanquished rival for the nomination, Rep. Dick Gephardt. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has a story on how hard Gephardt is working on Kerry's behalf.

Another name in the ever-growing VP hopper (political digest Hotline had 57 on Friday) is former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo. The New York Post says a "small but influential group of former Cuomo supporters are pushing him. One, Whitney Radio broadcast executive William O'Shaughnessy - has taken some action. 'A few days ago, I was in Sun Valley, Idaho, and I drove over to Jim Johnson's place in Ketchum and I left a copy of Mario's new book on Abraham Lincoln in his mailbox,' the Westchester-based O'Shaughnessy told The Post. And I left him a note saying, 'I hope you don't mind a Rockefeller Republican presuming this, but I have a guy for you for vice president.'"

Let's Talk: Fresh off a southern tour to mobilize voters, Ralph Nader announced he will meet with John Kerry next month to discuss ways to defeat President Bush in November. While maintaining he is still a candidate, he says he views his candidacy as a "second front against Bush, however small," the AP reports. Nader did not elaborate further on the meeting, but the Kerry camp tells CBS News that Nader requested the meeting, which will take place in three weeks.

Despite his announcement and despite the fact he is running as an Independent, Green Party advocate Peter Camejo is urging the Green Party to support Nader's bid for the presidency, the Washington Times reports. In a forum over the weekend in Washington, sponsored in part by the International Socialist Organization, Camejo told a group made up of mostly Green Party members, "For the Green Party not to help him and back his campaign would be a huge mistake." Camejo also pointed to the close mayoral race in San Francisco as proof that the Green Party has what it takes to be a major, nationwide player in the future.

The Green Party will select its presidential candidate during a national convention in Milwaukee in late June.

Quote of the Day: "No way. We're going to pedal-to-the-metal until Election Day." A Bush aide saying the President would not be taking a traditional summer break during the Democratic Convention this year. (US News and World Report Washington Whispers)