The Note

W A S H I N G T O N, April 21&#151;<br> -- TODAY SCHEDULE (all times ET)

FUTURES CALENDAR

NEWS SUMMARY

Swirling out there: a new Bush-Cheney 60-second TV spot going hard after John Kerry; two new Kerry TV spots, including one dovetailing perfectly with a hard-impacting Washington Post story on Iraq spending; and the rolling release of Kerry's military records.

(Sorry, Woodward -- we've sort of moved on.)

Per a Republican source, the new BC04 ad will rotate into their national cable buy and it "will address John Kerry's claim that 'a lot of people don't really know who I am.' The ad points out that John Kerry's problem isn't that people don't know him. It's that they do."

Its charming and evocative title: "Doublespeak."

The Kerry spots interestingly avoid the biographical stuff for which some Democrats are clamoring, but do smartly provide Kerry specifics (as much as one can in a 30-second spot!) about what he would do about Iraq and what his priorities would be (security, healthcare, the economy).

And then there are those military records.

It takes a gutsy (read: "foolish") weatherperson to predict tomorrow's outlook or November's in the middle of a hurricane-tornado.

That's why we don't want to project out too many conclusions from the flap over these records.

But four things are clear:

1. Proving that the transition from nomination-campaign-to-general-election-campaign is still underway for both candidate and staff, Team Kerry was totally unprepared for something that should have been researched and ready to take off the shelf a year ago.

(If this costs Kerry the election, we'll dissect what happened at the Institute of Politics post-November, and we bet the candidate gets his share of the blame.)

2. The WhiteHouseBC04RNC machine is awesome at seizing on an issue in the news, getting their talking points and marching orders disseminated and putting Kerry on the defensive and looking Clinton-Goreish. They are organized, relentless, and savvy.

3. The Kerry campaign's rolling release of the military records (We loved the Aaron Brown-Kelly Wallace play-by-play on the process last night!!) suggests that they are doing the kind of purge-it-all-out move that such contretemps demand. But what of the Washington Post report that Mrs. Heinz Kerry's tax returns could be next?

4. It's clear that it's NOT clear if the military records will yield a darn thing. So far, the only clear area of possible controversy (beyond the non-release) involves the terms of the first Kerry Purple Heart, and we are old enough to know that it didn't take much to get one, and there is at least some documentation of an injury.

Republicans will continue to try to raise questions, and here are ours at this writing:

a. Is the campaign withholding any records?

b. Has the military got any records that the Kerry campaign doesn't have?

c. What, if any, documents are missing?

Must-reads:

1. The Washington Post's Weisman on the Bush Administration's money gap on Iraq funding. LINK

Will these quotes turn out to be true (and repeated on camera?): GOP Rep. Curt Weldon "charged that the president is playing political games by postponing further funding requests until after the election, to try to avoid reopening debate on the war's cost and future" and described "the administration's current defense budget request as 'outrageous' and 'immoral' and said that at least $10 billion is needed for Iraqi operations over the next five months."

There's more, actually. Weldon's chief of staff, Michael Conallen, told ABC News that the Post misinterpreted what Weldon said. He says Weldon used the word "immoral" to describe the conditions U.S. troops faced during the Clinton Administration, when defense budgets were being cut.

Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress have increased the defense budgets, but it is still not enough -- which is "outrageous," Conallen said.

He also told ABC News that Weldon will question Deputy Defense Secretary Wolfowitz strongly during this morning's House Armed Services Committee hearing.

2. Jim VandeHei of the Washington Post on the Kerry power structure, with the typical Shrum storylines. LINK

3. The Los Angeles Times' Ron Brownstein on how the President's embrace of the U.N. in the Iraq process has defanged Sen. Kerry at least a bit. LINK

President Bush will be introduced at two of his events by Mrs. Bush. He makes remarks to the 2004 National and State Teachers of the Year at the White House. He also speaks at the Newspaper Association of America Annual Convention at the Omni Hotel and at a reception for the National Race for the Cure at the White House.

He is expected to take questions at the Newspaper event, so watch out!!!

Sen. Kerry tours the Louisiana coast by boat, then discusses coastal erosion and conservation with environmentalists and community leaders at Shell Beach in St. Bernard, La. Later, he attends a joint Kerry/DNC reception fundraiser in New Orleans before appearing at another fundraiser reception at The Foundry in New Orleans, La.

Kerry health:

AP's Nedra Pickler reports that "John Kerry's campaign on Tuesday provided documentation of Vietnam War injuries that included shrapnel wounds to his arms, legs and buttocks that earned him three Purple Hearts." LINK

The Washington Post's VandeHei and Romano recapped the release of the documents, including Kerry's "That's stupid" denial that he was feeling the heat from the Bush campaign and Republicans including RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie. LINK

The Chicago Tribune's Jill Zuckman and Jeff Zeleny outline the campaign's struggle to make Kerry's military documents public, given their contention that they weren't prepared to go public with them so soon. LINK

Michael Kranish and Patrick Healy of the Boston Globe almost appear bored with the Kerry military documents released by deadline. They've seen them all before. However, the Boston Globe duo no doubt look forward to the rest of the document dump scheduled throughout the day. LINK

"Late yesterday, after Kerry's stance and the Republican taunts became the subject of numerous media reports, the campaign announced that it would release more records than it had given to the Globe, but it did not say what additional records would be made available."

The New York Times' Kit Seelye's early version of the Kerry military records story. The Teresa Heinz Kerry tax return question gets more play here. LINK

The Los Angeles Times on the Kerry military records -- with a mention at bottom of the President's National Guard service.LINK

Kerry ads:

The Kerry campaign hits the air with two new 30-second spots today, teasing their debut as part of a "series of ads" in a "significant buy" in 17 battleground states. One, entitled "Commitment," lays out the Senator's priorities for America -- national security, jobs, education and health care. The other discusses his plan for changing the course of action in Iraq.

Here are the scripts:

"Commitment"

Kerry: "As President I'll set a few clear national priorities for America. "First, we will keep this country safe and secure. Second, I'll put an end to tax incentives that encourage American companies to ship jobs overseas. And third, we'll invest in education and healthcare.

"My priorities are jobs and healthcare. My commitment is to defend this country. "I'm John Kerry and I approved this message because together we can build a stronger America."

"Risk"

Kerry: "Let me tell you exactly what I would do to change the situation in Iraq. "I would immediately reach out to the international community in sharing the burden, the risk because they also have a stake in the outcome of what is happening in Iraq.

"The American taxpayer is paying now almost 200 billion dollars and who knows how many more billions and we're paying the highest price in the loss of lives of our young soldiers, almost alone.

"I'm John Kerry and I approved this message."

Liz Sidoti of the Associated Press has the latest on the latest Kerry campaign ads. "Democrat John Kerry outlines his plans for a 'safe and secure' America and for the nation's involvement in Iraq in two new campaign commercials meant to introduce the relatively unknown presidential candidate to voters." LINK

More Sidoti: "Kerry's campaign boosted advertising spending significantly for the new commercials, the first in a series meant to flesh out Kerry's proposals and biography, according to campaign officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity. One said Kerry's spending now is even with Bush's current buy, which is about $4 million over 10 days. A biographical Kerry ad is to follow in the coming weeks."

The politics of national security:

Writes the Los Angeles Times' Brownstein in that must read, "President Bush's increasing reliance on the United Nations in Iraq is unsettling some of his political allies, but blunting Sen. John F. Kerry's main argument against the administration's strategy for restoring stability there." Notes Brownstein, "With his move toward Kerry's position, Bush has demonstrated how quickly an incumbent can change the terms of debate in a presidential election by co-opting his opponent's positions. In effect, Bush has thrown Kerry off balance by letting go of the rope in their tug of war over Iraq -- just as Clinton did in 1996, when he signed a revised welfare reform bill after Bob Dole, his Republican opponent, had condemned him for vetoing earlier versions."

Here at home, the Wall Street Journal's Michael Phillips takes a good look at the Democrats' "efforts to chip away at Republicans' political strength on national-security matters. With Vietnam veteran John Kerry at the top of the ticket and unease growing over the Bush administration's handling of Iraq and terrorism, Democrats are hoping to tap a new constituency: members of the military and veterans, who vote overwhelmingly Republican. Say some observers, though, "there's little evidence so far that Mr. Bush is in trouble with military voters."

Today Secretary of State Powell is not a target of the Wall Street Journal's opinion page but as author on it as he argues for openness to visitors to the United States.

And in coalition news: The Dominican Republic says it, too, will withdraw its troops from Iraq when its one year of duty is up in August as car bombs kill dozens of Iraqis in Basra.