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Inside Politics
The Morning Grind / DayAhead

Secrecy, and a Specter showdown

By John Mercurio and Steve Turnham
CNN Political Unit

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What a privilege: All nine Supreme Court justices will rule on Cheney's sealed documents.
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CNN's Bob Franken on the Supreme Court hearing arguments involving Dick Cheney and executive privilege.

CNN's Joe Johns on the Pennsylvania Republican primary vote and Sen. Arlen Specter.

CNN's Candy Crowley on John Kerry and the controversy over a 1971 war protest.
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The Morning Grind
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- We'll hear oral arguments in a major Supreme Court case today and read pages from a new biography on John Kerry from the "Reporters Who Know Him Best."

And while we have yet to receive one e-mail this morning with the words "National Guard" or "Vietnam medals" in them ... oh wait, there's one.

But we suspect there's at least one man who's distracted by events unfolding closer to his home. Sen. Arlen Specter will know by sundown Tuesday night whether his four-term Senate career will end at the hands of a three-term congressman, conservative Pat Toomey, or be decided this fall in a race against another three-term congressman, Democrat Joe Hoeffel. (More on this below)

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court hears arguments in a 3-year-old battle over White House secrecy, which has provided ample fodder for Bush-Cheney critics and late-night comics but which reflects the Bush administration's die-hard belief in executive privilege. All nine justices -- including, of course, hunting enthusiast Antonin Scalia -- will rule by July.

In Cheney v. U.S. District Court, the Bush administration is asking the high court to let it continue to seal records of Vice President Dick Cheney's work in 2001 on national energy policy. (Supreme Court takes up dispute over Cheney energy meetings)

The court is widely known for protecting its secrecy, but the administration already has suffered two defeats in this case in federal court. If the Supreme Court sides with the lower courts, Cheney could be forced to reveal these records just months before the presidential election.

Also Tuesday, we'll learn more about Kerry -- if not from him, then from three Boston Globe reporters who apparently know the senator from Massachusetts pretty well. Like, really, really well. OK, "best."

The 448-page biography, "John F. Kerry, the Complete Biography: By the Boston Globe Reporters Who Know Him Best," was penned by the paper's Michael Kranish, Brian C. Mooney and Nina J. Easton, the same journalists who discovered last year that Kerry's paternal grandfather was Jewish.

The book is expected to reveal few smoking guns. But it does offer new insight into Kerry's early years -- from a childhood that extended across a dozen towns and two continents to his days at Yale, when his friends played "Hail to the Chief" on a kazoo to mock his presidential ambitions, to his time in Vietnam and those modest early years in Congress. And, of course, beyond.

Kerry spends Tuesday in Ohio, continuing his jobs and fund-raising tour. (Kerry: Bush not enforcing trade pacts)

He's hitting both hard. As of Friday, Kerry had raised $29.7 million in April and held fund-raising events in at least 20 cities. Total contributions to date: $76.7 million from 395,650 contributors -- including $34.9 million raised on the Internet.

Specter fights conservative challenger to keep seat

After a miserable Monday braving relentless rain and wind as he flew around the state in a small plane, Specter got what he wanted Tuesday morning -- bright sunshine in Philadelphia.

Specter needs a solid turnout in the five Philly counties to offset conservative rival Toomey's church-based strength in the south and west. Analysts predict that a Philadelphia turnout of 35 percent would be enough to put Specter over the top.

"There isn't anything we could have done that we haven't done," said an uncharacteristically cheerful Specter at a news conference in Harrisburg. "It's been a real 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week, 365-day-a-year effort. So you don't see me perspiring today, and you don't see me tense."

Specter, with a major assist from the national GOP, is leaving nothing to chance. He had workers knocking on doors in every county of every part of the state. And to blunt Toomey's charge that he is too liberal, Specter spent all Monday with fellow Sen. Rick Santorum, a darling of the right.

The National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee had set aside $1.4 million to bail him out, and when public polls showed Toomey getting close, the committee started spending. As Monday, it had spent about half that amount, most of it on an ad showing Specter and the president together.

While Specter has run the kind of professional and well-funded campaign that has allowed him to make a career out of surviving close races, Toomey has grass-roots passion on his side.

"We're going to be a part of the biggest upset in Pennsylvania history," Toomey told supporters Monday night at the Scottish Rite Center in Allentown before exhorting the crowd to go to the polls. "I believe all the energy and enthusiasm is on our side of the race."

He may be right. And it may not be enough.


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