The Note

W A S H I N G T O N July 14&#151;<br> -- Today's Schedule (all times Eastern):

—9:45 am: Ari Fleischer's last off-camera press gaggle, White House—10:30 am: House convenes for legislative business—12:00 pm: Ari Fleischer's last on-camera press briefing, White House—1:00 pm: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi keynotes National Council of La Raza luncheon, Austin, Texas —1:15 pm: President Bush meets with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, White House —2:00 pm: Senate convenes for legislative business —2:30 pm: NAACP presidential forum, Miami—6:00 pm: Vice President Cheney attends fundraiser for Congressman Terry Everett, Birmingham, Alabama

NEWS SUMMARY

At some point, somebody should take all the e-mailed press releases from the crackerjack research team at the Republican National Committee attacking the Democratic presidential candidates, print them out, and publish them in a bound, leatherette hard copy edition.

Like a fine Julie Teer quote LINK, or a "Breck Girl" anonymous missile from a "Bush adviser," these releases are intended to make mischief in the Democratic nomination fight — destabilize things as much as they can, dragging the process out as long as possible, trying to produce as weak a Democratic nominee as they can in the end, and basically playing bad cop, so the president can stay above the fray until the last possible moment.

These releases, read in their totality, are brilliant, but they can also cause some cognitive dissonance, because they do hit on some contradictory themes (sometimes, for example, attacking a candidate for being too liberal, but, sometimes, attacking someone for being to conservative).

The main themes are that one or more of the Democratic candidates are:

1. missing too many votes2. changing their positions3. itching to raise your taxes4. inconsistent5. attacking each other6. too negative about President Bush (Note the irony!)7. wimpy, effeminate, and crass8. obstructionist 9. unconcerned with homeland security10. borderline communist (ok: we are — pretty much — kidding about that one)

The RNC attacking the Democratic candidates is dog-bites-man, except, pace Karl Rove, this is arguably the most organized operation of this type in the modern era (You should see their tape library!!!).

If you are part of the Gang of 500, you probably thought that the most important political attacks of the weekend were the Democrats attacking President Bush on Iraq, trying to take him down a notch or two or three on credibility and national security.

And, indeed, from the cover of Time ("Untruth & Consequences"), to a few media polls, to stories galore, to cable chatter, that dynamic got a lot of weekend coverage and stuff today (once the press snapped out of it and realized that George Tenet's extraordinary Friday statement didn't actually take the blame … .) and will get more today and going forward — with Tenet on the Hill on Wednesday.

As one Washington hand put it in an e-mail to us, "After reading Sanger's piece on Saturday and realizing that the NYT was going to play it straight, Tenet and the CIA started leaking on Saturday night so that we would read their lips: "The NSC made me do it."

And this despite this classic trying-to-turn-the-page quote from Ari Fleischer over the weekend: "'The president is pleased that the director of central intelligence acknowledged what needed to be acknowledged. The president has moved on. And I think, frankly, much of the country has moved on as well."

Sure, Ari gets out a lot and talks to many people (We can't wait for his Letterman gig … .), but we wonder how he knows that so "frankly" about the country.

Maybe he'll have (more) time to look at polling data after this, his last day. Ari: thank you for your service to America.

Pretty much anyone with a "D" after his or her name is looking to capitalize on the current Iraq situation, but there are "D's" and then there are "D's."

The president's best buddy on Leave No Child Behind and Medicare, the senior Senator from Massachusetts, is planning to give a speech tomorrow at Johns Hopkins about the current situation in post-war Iraq and what he will call the "faltering efforts to win the peace and bring democracy to the Iraqi people."

Also trying to leverage off of this situation, and as quietly broken by Mr. Fournier LINK

(Darn it: scooped again … .), and confirmed by ABC News, the Bay State's so-called "other" senator (that would be a fella by the name of "Kerry") plans to give a speech in New York City on Wednesday (Apparently New York is where that bullhorn thing happened, and where the Republican convention will be held … ), in which Kerry will charge that Bush is not being straight with the American people on a whole range of national security issues, which are making the nation less secure, less safe, less strong.

Think of the now-familiar litany — 9/11 commission, CIA intelligence, post-war Iraq, Tora Bora, homeland security.

Kerry will also use the New York backdrop to charge that the city is still awaiting billions in homeland security and rebuilding aid that Bush promised. In the days, weeks and months to come, Kerry aides say he will continue to focus on this alleged Bush pattern of misleading the country on a whole range of issues in addition to national security: environment (Clear Skies); education (underfunding of No Child Left Behind); and the economy (Tax cuts are the answer to EVERYTHING.).

We can hear the cries from Burlington and Raleigh, and Steve Elmendorf's apartment: We've been making this exact case for months.

In fact, if you were part of the key sub-group of the Gang of 500 ("the Gang of 50," we call 'em) you know that the weekend also saw some pretty sharp-elbowed Democrat-on-Democrat action.

The smarter Democratic campaigns have studied what works for Bush, particularly the good cop/bad cop thing. Republicans like to point out that the president didn't attack Democratic candidates on the stump in 2002, and we have Noted many times that the president gives almost exclusively non-partisan speeches at his fundraisers.

But that means leaving the more-in-sadness-than-in-anger attacks to his advisers, the farther from the White House the better.

So Senator Kerry told Wolf Blitzer yesterday what he says all the time — that he doesn't go around talking about the other Democratic candidates. And, yet, he did on the NewsHour recently, and he certainly lets his spokespeople say stuff on the record and on background about his party rivals.

When Dick Gephardt telegraphed that he was fixin' to hit John Kerry on trade in Iowa more than one news cycle in advance of the actual hit, the Kerry camp pre-buttaled back, and Team Gephardt post-pre-buttaled in advance of the actual hit!!

Then Mike Glover covered the event itself, in which Gephardt uttered the words "Kerry" and "Dean." LINK"Using a union hall speech as a backdrop, Gephardt criticized [Kerry and Dean] for supporting the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he said has drained thousands of jobs from the U.S."

More: "Gephardt's assault underscores a deep division among Democrats and one of their key constituencies. Former President Clinton pushed NAFTA through Congress, over the opposition of organized labor. Union leaders argued the measure would shift American jobs to low-paying countries like Mexico and China. Gephardt as made the same argument to the activists Saturday."

And: "Gephardt's assault is also a sign that he's feeling pressure in key early states like Iowa, where precinct caucuses next January launch the presidential nominating season."

This Chris Lehane quote, from after the actual Gephardt event is as obvious as it is over-the-top: " "We're going to turn the cheek on this one because we respect Congressman Gephardt and are sympathetic to his campaign's frustrations and growing sense of desperation," said Lehane. LINK

The best round-up is written by the Des Moines Register 's Thomas Beaumont, who managed to find a prominent Iowa labor activist to represent just about every point of view. LINKCalifornia recall summary:

Recall organizers claim to have reached 1.6 million signatures submitted to county election officials.

Rumors of Gray Davis' resignation entered the fray when Mulholland and Gilliard did combat with Katie on Today.

Attention, anchorpeople, their researchers, and their PA's: don't miss Matea Gold's Sunday Los Angeles Times piece on the history of the recall — tailor-made to steal for back-of-the-show thumbsucking when you head West. LINK

This week, President Bush holds a series of meetings with international leaders, starting with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan today, Czech Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla tomorrow, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Thursday, which will be interesting.

On Wednesday, the president makes separate remarks to U.S. Attorneys and urban leaders in D.C.

President and Mrs. Bush will also head home to Texas at the end of the week for two big fundraisers. The first is in Dallas on Friday night and the second is in Houston on Saturday night. It's a 6:35 pm local start time for both events.

In advance of tomorrow's filing deadline at the FEC (get ready to pour through the REAL fundraising numbers, the lists of contributors, and those always-under-reported disbursements), the NAACP's 94th annual convention continues today in Miami, Florida with a presidential candidate forum that gained some steam over the weekend.

There were some last-minute decisions made by the Kerry and Edwards campaigns to change plans and attend the forum. Governor Dean, Senator Graham, Ambassador Braun, and Reverend Sharpton had already committed to attending.

Senator Lieberman and Congressman Gephardt have scheduling conflicts. Congressman Kucinich's plans are still up in the air.

Regardless of how many participate, the NAACP says the forum is not designed to be a debate; rather they say it's a forum to hear the candidates' responses to seven pre-taped questions, each coming from one representative from each of the seven regional NAACP districts in the country.

Each candidate will be able to answer each question and responses will be limited to under two minutes each. Candidates will not have the opportunity to offer follow-ups, rebuttals, or any freely flowing engagement of another candidate.

On Tuesday, the Human Rights Campaign holds its presidential forum during which candidates will appear one-by-one before the lone questioner, ABC News' Sam Donaldson.

All nine candidates are expected, though, as of Friday, Senators Graham and Edwards had not yet officially confirmed.

The HRC's Michael Cole breaks it down for The Note: "Each candidate is allotted 2 minutes for an opening statement and 3 minutes for a closing statement. There will be a question and answer period led by Sam Donaldson. Each candidate will receive 2 or 3 questions and have 1 minute 30 seconds to respond. Should the moderator deem a follow-up question necessary the candidate will have 30 seconds to respond."

There are a few conventions of Note this week.

The National Council of La Raza annual conference in Austin, Texas continues today and wraps up tomorrow. House Minority Leader Pelosi will be the featured lunch speaker today and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson has the lunchtime honors on Tuesday.

The Green Party's planning meetings in D.C. last until Sunday.

The National Association of Lieutenant Governors begins its annual meeting in Little Rock, Arkansas on Tuesday and closes on Saturday.

Senator Edwards was scheduled to campaign in Sioux City, Iowa today, but as Noted above, he changed plans and hopped a plane to Miami. On Tuesday, Edwards is scheduled to be in Portsmouth, New Hampshire for the latest in his series of Granite State town hall meetings. He'll be back in D.C. on Wednesday to make remarks on civil rights and voting rights to members of the D.C. Democracy Fund. On Friday, Senator Edwards heads out west again to speak to the Arizona Education Leaders Association.

Governor Dean campaigns in Austin, Texas and Miami, Florida today. He spends the day campaigning in D.C. on Tuesday. He then heads to Iowa on Thursday and Friday.

Senator Lieberman campaigns in Richmond, Virginia on Tuesday; in Charleston, South Carolina on Wednesday; in Council Bluffs, Iowa on Thursday; and in New Hampshire on Friday.

Senator Graham is still campaigning in Miami today. He and the Bobcats (and presumably Mudcat) have a big day of campaigning in Roanoke, Virginia on Wednesday, including autographs at the Winner's Circle NASCAR shop with Ward Burton, Jon Wood, Eddie Wood, and former Congressman Ben "Cooter" Jones. Plus there's a concert featuring Ralph Stanley. O' Bobcats, Where Art Thou?

Ambassador Braun is in Miami today and will attend the Junior Statesman Foundation meeting on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois on Thursday.

Senator Kerry and Reverend Sharpton are in Miami today for the NAACP forum.

Congressmen Gephardt's and Kucinich's schedules for today and the week are still pending.

Politics of national security:

USA Today 's John Diamond writes, "CIA Director George Tenet's hold on power, already weakened by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, has reached its most tenuous point now that he has been blamed for President Bush's unsubstantiated charge in his State of the Union address that Iraq sought to buy uranium for nuclear weapons from Africa." LINKDiamond says CIA agents are mad at the White House, Team Cheney is mad at Tenet, and hints that Tenet might quit even with the public attaboy from the president and his own spokesman's denials.

The New York Times ' intelligent James Risen focuses on the new "it wasn't wrong but he shouldn't have said it" defense of the White House. LINKThe Wall Street Journal 's Cummings and Cloud are in 72-hour catch-up mode, and see "a host of new questions about prewar intelligence and how the administration used it to justify war."

Walter Pincus, resting up, writes the Sunday shows straight in the Washington Post . LINKThe Wall Street Journal editorial board, following on the Gigot appearance on the "This Week" roundtable, says that those holding adult views of how intelligence should interact with policymaking aren't the least bit troubled by those 16 words, and attacks Carl Levin (for sitting in green rooms), two unnamed "callow" New Republic writers, and (mildly) the White House, for getting drawn into this.