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John Kerry, from hobnobbing to hospital

By John Mercurio
CNN Political Unit

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- For the second time in two weeks, Howard Dean returns to the political spotlight on the same day John Kerry goes dark. Coincidence? Yeah, probably.

Dean travels to the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., at 7:30 p.m. ET to deliver the keynote address at the 21st Century Democrats annual dinner. As he works behind the scenes to hire senior staffers for Democracy for America, Dean comes to D.C. tonight to talk about the new group's mission and the stakes of the 2004 election.

Meanwhile in Boston, Kerry is scheduled to arrive at Massachusetts General Hospital at 11:30 a.m. ET. His surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff in his right shoulder is expected to take roughly 45 minutes to an hour. At 3 p.m., Dr. Bertram Zarins will hold a conference call to report on Kerry's condition.

Kerry will take narcotic painkillers for two to three days, as needed. He'll wear a sling for a day or two before being allowed "to use the arm carefully," according to Zarins. Prior to his surgery, Kerry will make remarks to a Boston Carpenters Apprenticeship and Training Fund gathering.

With Kerry down, MoveOn's PAC goes up with its new TV ad highlighting Richard Clarke's testimony before the 9/11 commission.

In the spot, an announcer says Bush "shamelessly exploited 9/11 in his campaign commercials."

"Now his own counter-terrorism expert, a man who has worked for every president since Ronald Reagan says, 'Frankly, I find it outrageous that a president is running for re-election on the grounds that he'd done such great things on terrorism. He ignored terrorism for months, when maybe we could have done something to stop 9/11.' George Bush. A failure of leadership."

The Bush administration has vigorously denied Clarke's charges, calling them "deeply irresponsible" and "flat-out wrong." (Full story)

The 30-second ad went up last night nationwide on CNN and Fox News in a $342,000 buy. MoveOn plans to add a second spot next week using Clarke's testimony before the 9/11 Commission, and they say the buy for both ads will total $1 million.

California cash

And just in case you thought that covering Kerry was all about gas taxes and war heroes, CNN's Mike Roselli reports that on Kerry's fund-raising trip through California, the average number of people on the senator's plane was 53 (including the candidate, staff, press and Secret Service). The number of men named Jim -- seven. Including the NBC camera crew Jim Caruso and his son Jim Jr. That's, uh, a lot of Jims.

Moving right along, Kerry raised money with some big Dems at a sprawling beachside hacienda in La Jolla yesterday, including recalled Gov. Gray Davis and his wife Sharon. Other big names under the big top were former Secretary of State and L.A. lawyer Warren Christopher; former Carter adviser Midge Costanza; and Lynn Schenk, former San Diego congresswoman and former Davis chief of staff.

But the real stars came out later Tuesday at a Beverly Hills fund-raiser, held at Ron Burkle's 50,000-square-foot mansion known as "The Green Acres" estate. Singer James Taylor entertained and Kerry earned an estimated $2 million to $2.5 million for the campaign.

Roselli provides us with an assortment of A-List celebs who attended (in no particular order): Meg Ryan, Barbra Streisand, Tom Cole, Kevin Costner, Don Henley, Jason Alexander, Helen Hunt, Danny DeVito, Leonardo DiCaprio, Oliver Stone, Tobey Maguire, Ed Harris, Owen Wilson, Ben Stiller, Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Lucas Haas, Christina Applegate, Paul Reiser, Martin Short, Tom Arnold, Sharon Stone, Lucy Liu, Lance Bass, James Brolin, Quincy Jones, Peter Boyle, Rhea Perlman and Henry Winkler.

Pop quiz

Speaking of a crowd that would make Bill Clinton feel right at home, MTV last night ran "Choose or Lose: 20 Million Questions for John Kerry," whose predecessor in 1992 revealed to the world that Clinton wears briefs.

While there was no "boxers or briefs?" moment, we did learn that Kerry has indeed Googled himself. "I was surprised by the results. Pretty big. I can't remember what the number was, but it stunned me, to be honest with you."

He was also asked if he was "cool" in college, and if he's cool now. "If I were cool, and I told you I was cool, then I wouldn't be cool." Good answer. He then told the questioner, 'It's up to you, Michael, and other people to judge whether anything I do today is cool. My daughter would probably tell you I'm a freak at times."

And if you must know, Kerry says he was never into heavy metal but is fascinated by rap and by hip-hop. "I think there's a lot of poetry in it. There's a lot of anger, a lot of social energy on it and I think you better listen to it pretty carefully because it's important." (No mention of James Taylor.)

By the numbers

Also today, we wanted to bring you the latest ad spending estimates for presidential campaigns and interest group ads from TNS Media Intelligence/Campaign Media Analysis Group (TNSMI/CMAG), CNN's consultant on ad spending. TNSMI/CMAG estimates ad spending in the nation's top 100 media markets; the actual spending amounts are likely higher. The period covered is March 22 to 28.

Many independent groups, such as the Media Fund, the Sierra Club, the New Democrat Network, MoveOn.org and the Log Cabin Republicans have run TV ads critical of Bush or laudatory of Kerry. Below is a comparison of how much Bush spent in each state below versus how much Kerry and the independent groups spent in each state.

CMAG estimates show that while Bush is overall spending more than Kerry and independent groups, in 12 of the 17 states where both candidates are advertising, Kerry and the outside groups are outspending Bush.

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