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The Morning Grind / DayAhead |
Still talking swift boats
By John Mercurio
CNN Political Unit
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 CNN's Kelly Wallace on John Kerry's turn on "The Daily Show."
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- John Kerry isn't in such a hurry to move past swift boats after all.
Later this morning, Max Cleland and Jim Rasmann will arrive uninvited at President Bush's ranch in Crawford to hand-deliver a letter signed by nine Democratic senators urging Bush to "recognize this blatant attempt at character assassination and publicly condemn" the swift boat ads.
The letter was signed by Sens. Daniel Inouye, Tom Carper, Jon Corzine, Tom Harkin, Fritz Hollings, Frank Lautenberg, Jack Reed, Bill Nelson and Jeff Bingaman.
Camp Kerry, which alerted the media of their plans last night, concedes that Cleland and Rassman will "likely be turned away" -- something we're not sure the folks at Bush-Cheney would allow to pass. Sensing an anti-Bush backlash on a story that caught Kerry flat-footed one week ago, however, this move will generate the pictures they'll need to sustain this story for another news cycle.
Of course, with every passing day, new reports fuel Camp Kerry's hopes that they can turn this into a positive. Last night, for example, Ben Ginsberg joined Ken Cordier as a Bush-Cheney adviser who has acknowledged working with Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Ginsberg, a GOP elections attorney who serves as Bush-Cheney's chief outside counsel this year and an adviser during the Florida recount, acknowledged that he provided legal advice to those truth-seeking vets.
The law allows Ginsberg to serve both roles, and Democratic attorneys are doing the same thing for MoveOn and other liberal groups. But Ginsberg's concession doesn't make it any easier for Bush-Cheney to insist, as spokesman Scott Stanzel did in an interview last night, that "there has been no coordination at any time between Bush-Cheney 2004 and any 527 organization."
Another arrow in Kerry's quiver: The Associated Press reports today that the Navy task force overseeing Kerry's swift boat squadron in Vietnam backs up the senator's side of the story. The Task Force 115 report calls it "an enemy initiated firefight" that included automatic weapons fire and underwater mines used against a group of five boats that included Kerry's. Kerry's accusers have not produced any official Navy documents supporting their claims.
Focus on McGreevey
Elsewhere today, Republicans step up efforts to force New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey to step down sooner. McGreevey earlier this month said he would resign in November, after acknowledging that he was gay and had had an extramarital affair with a man.
RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie, in New York preparing for his convention next week, crosses the river to Hackensack, where he and state Sen. Joe Kyrillos, his Garden State counterpart, unveil a new TV ad at 1 p.m. ET. The spot features several newspaper editorials that urge McGreevey to resign before September 2, triggering a special election this fall.
The new ad comes as Quinnipiac University releases a poll showing that Kerry has been largely untarnished by the McGreevey scandal. Kerry leads Bush by 10 points in the new poll, and only 7 percent of respondents said they're less likely to vote for Kerry because of McGreevey.
The survey, conducted August 19 to 23, also shows that Sen. Jon Corzine is the new strongman in Jersey politics. Corzine leads his would-be GOP gubernatorial rivals by wide margins. (By far the closest race would be between Corzine and ex-Gov. Christie Todd Whitman, according to the survey, and Corzine would win that race by 11 points. Whitman has said she won't run for governor again.)
Speaking of gay Americans, the Republican platform subcommittee on "Protecting our Families" holds hearings today in New York to debate, among other things, a plank supporting a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. The hearings come just one day after Dick Cheney, breaking from Bush, re-iterated his nonbinding preference that states decide the gay marriage issue.
If the committee adopts the plank as expected, Log Cabin Republicans are prepared to mount a floor fight. (And, we have to assume, everything short of a Kerry-Edwards endorsement.)
"There's apparently a Gary Bauer litmus test that this platform committee has adopted," Christopher Barron, the Log Cabin political director, told The Grind. "We're prepared to take this fight to the American people. This fight is too important."
On the cable shows
On an entirely unrelated note, Kerry disclosed last night that he meets lots of men in public bathrooms now that he's running for president. "God, it's the most bizarre part of this entire campaign," Kerry said on "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart.
Stewart's advice: "Secret Service, right at the door. Not getting in."
Meanwhile, it was poor old cable news networks that once again served as Stewart's tried-and-true punching bag. "I watch a lot of the cable news shows, so I understand that apparently you were never in Vietnam," he said. Kerry laughed, clapped his hands, and replied, somewhat flatly, "That's what I understand, too. I'm trying to find out what happened."
The ad campaigns
While he continues to rail against 527s, Bush is likely to get some help from an upcoming ad campaign aimed at John Edwards. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce plans to run TV ads attacking the former trial attorney through a new political organization called the November Fund. The ads will run in seven states where polls show a tight race between Kerry and Bush, the chamber said last night in an e-mail statement.
Also on the 527 horizon: New ads were unveiled last night by MoveOn PAC. The spots feature the work of liberal activist/actors such as Rob Reiner, John Sayles and Benny Boom, musician Moby, comedians Margaret Cho and Al Franken, and actors Kevin Bacon, Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson.
Most of them end with the phrase, "George Bush. He's not on our side." But the first one set to air, called "Everybody," actually doesn't mention Bush at all. In it, a young black man leads some friends into a polling place. A white police officer stops them to ask, "What's the problem?" The black man replies, "No problem, we're here to vote."
While the swift boat debate is sure to pass, it has fundamentally changed the tone and texture of this campaign. We may not be talking about swift boats everyday in October, but we will be hearing Kerry introduced the way Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell did yesterday, when he said, "If you want this election decided on the Vietnam issue, I ask you who served his country better: John Kerry or George Bush."
Rendell probably said the same thing before swift boat. But now he means it.
