Now the gloves come off.

Sen. Barack Obama hit Republican rival John McCain today with a television campaign ad mocking McCain's immediate inability this week to recall how many homes he owns - "seven,'' the Obama ad reminds viewers, and they are "worth $13 million.''

Now the McCain campaign returns fire with an ad evoking the name of Antoin ''Tony'' Rezko, the recently convicted Chicago power broker who had raised money for Obama's campaigns and helped Obama with his own real estate-buying on the South Side of Chicago a few years back.

"Barack Obama knows a lot about housing problems,'' the narrator of the stark new McCain ad states. "One of his biggest fundraisers helped him buy his $1 million mansion, purchasing part of the property he couldn't afford... From Obama, Rezko got political favors... Now he's a convicted felon facing jail. That's a housing problem.''

Obama's critics have long warned that they will attempt to make Rezko a problem for Obama, and the new McCain campaign ad ratchets up a televised ad-war that has focused for the most part on Obama's ability to lead - "not ready to lead,'' McCain's campaign ads have called him.

With this ad, camp McCain is attempting to saddle Obama with a convicted felon. It's also clear, in the speed with which the McCain camp has offered this rebuttal on the housing front today, that this one was "in the can.'' The McCain campaign says it is airing the ad in "key states.''

A federal jury in June convicted Rezko on corruption charges for trading on his clout as a top adviser and fundraiser to Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Rezko's guilty verdict on 16 of 24 corruption counts could have broad repercussions for Blagojevich, who made Rezko a central player in his kitchen cabinet. It could also prove a political liability Obama, who once counted Rezko as a friend and fundraiser. A federal judge has put off Rezko's sentencing until a week before the election.

"I'm saddened by today's verdict," Obama said at the time of the conviction. "This isn't the Tony Rezko I knew, but now he has been convicted by a jury on multiple charges that once again shine a spotlight on the need for reform.''

Rezko had befriended many Illinois politicians and was a bigtime fundraiser for some, most prominently Blagojevich and Obama. The criminal charges against Rezko had nothing to do with his connection to Obama. But that link still posed a headache for Obama, particularly in the wake of Tribune revelations that tied Rezko to a 2005 real estate deal involving Obama's home.

Obama in 2005 voiced regrets for the 2005 land purchase that enlarged the senator's yard. In June 2005, Obama and Rezko purchased adjoining parcels of land in Kenwood. The senator paid $1.65 million for a Georgian revival mansion, while Rezko, a developer, paid $625,000 for the adjacent, undeveloped lot. Both closed on their properties on the same day. Then, to increase the size of his lot, Obama paid Rezko $104,500 for a strip of his land. The transaction occurred at a time when it was widely known that Rezko was under investigation by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey intends to let Congress have its say before signing controversial new guidelines that reportedly broaden the FBI's authority to conduct investigations. But he will not delay their implementation.

In a letter to the Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Justice Department said Mukasey will postpone signing off on the new guidelines until after FBI director Robert Mueller testifies before the committee Sept. 17. In the meantime, the department said it will consult with the committee on the measures.

But the letter says Mukasey is committed to rolling out the guidelines in October.

Thursday, the New York Times reported that the new FBI guidelines would allow the bureau to open up investigations without any indication of suspicious activity. Mukasey has said the guidelines are needed to facilitate the bureau's transition from a law enforcement agency to an intelligence-gathering one to combat terrorism.

Civil liberties advocates fear the new authority will allow for racial profiling of targets.

The Justice Department's Thursday letter was in response to a letter sent Monday by Leahy and Specter asking for the delay. It's a rare sign of compromise from a Justice Department that often has resisted attempts at congressional oversight. But the action may not affect how the guidelines appear in final form.

CHESAPEAKE, Va. -- Sen. Barack Obama has picked his running mate, but still won't yet say who he wants to join him on the Democratic ticket.

"I've made the selection, and that's all you're going to get," the Illinois Democrat told reporters this afternoon at Virginia Favorites Ltd., a peanut and gift shop in Emporia, Va.

Obama is set to fly back to Chicago this evening and an announcement from his campaign is expected soon.

Welcome to my 5,000th posting in the Swamp.

So says the automatic counter at the e-publishing platform that delivers the Swamp to your e-step every day of the week and weekend and at most hours of the day.

In honor of the occasion, this is a posting about nothing.

Nothing, that is, except the pleasure I have had, since my colleague Frank James in the Washington bureau of the Chicago Tribune, with the blessing of our bureau chief at the time, Mike Tackett, launched this blog dedicated to all things Washington.

Since we started, in January of 2006, our readership has soared. We are counting more than a million "page-views'' each month, upwards of 3 million at peak points in the presidential campaign underway. And we have collected, and posted, hundreds of thousands of comments from readers such as you.

Our coverage has reached beyond the boundaries of politics and government. I have a place in my heart for my posting, "Sweet Home Chicago,'' the account of a late-night session with a very-old bluesman. It has drawn a loyal following of its own, people who spend more time these days talking to one another than to us here at the Swamp. Which is what we hoped to build here: A community. "Homies,'' you know who you are. Rock on.

Join us, please, during the next two weeks, as the Swamp takes you to Denver and to St. Paul for the formal nomination of the presidential candidates of the two major parties. If it's starting to feel like peak season again, here in the Swamp, wait 'til fall.

Heading to Denver in the morning.

5,000 and rolling.

by Frank James

Mocking Sen. Barack Obama's celebrity and the quasi-religious fervor he has inspired in some voters, the Republican National Committee is reprising its popular ad called "The One," this time with "The One - The Road to Denver," an obvious reference to next week's Democratic National Convention at which the senator from Illinois will become, if all goes to plan, the first African-American to receive a major political party's presidential nomination.

When something's working in politics, you tend to see more of it. And from the latest polls, it appears that what Sen. John McCain's campaign as well as the RNC have been doing to make Obama less appealing appears to be working.

So we'll probably be seeing even more sequels to "The One" before it's all said and done in November.

This didn't take long.

Within a news cycle after John McCain stumbled over a question of how many homes he owns, Democratic rival Barack Obama was offering Americans the answer:

Seven. "Worth $13 million.''

The new TV ad airing on national cable outlets today follows Obama's campaign trail remarks about the report from Politico.com today that McCain, senior senator from Arizona and husband of a wealthy heiress whose family built one of the biggest beer distributorships in the country, couldn't readily tally his home count.

It's a sign, perhaps, of an awareness at camp Obama that a certain aggressive tactic may be called for heading into the national presidential nominating conventions at a time when Obama has had trouble capitalizing on the natural advantage that his party would seem to have in the presidential election campaign underway. While most voters say they are predisposed to vote Democratic, Obama has been running virtually even with McCain in the national polls - though Obama holds an apparent polling advantage in the electoral vote count.

"Maybe you're struggling just to pay the mortgage on your home,'' says the narrator of the Obama camapign ad, opening with an image of a modest brick bungalow and McCain's assertions this week that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong.'' (cue the foreclosure sign). The narrator ads: "Then again, that same day, when asked how many houses he owns... McCain lost track. He couldn't remember.''

It's seven, the narrator says, with the screen tallying their value: $13 million.

The ad closes with an image of the White House: "Here's one house America can't afford... to let John McCain move into.''

McCain campaign spokesman Brian Rogers was ready with an equally forceful response evoking the neighbor of Obama's, Tony Rezko, recently convicted for influence peddling: "Does a guy who made more than $4 million last year, just got back from vacation on a private beach in Hawaii and bought his own million-dollar mansion with the help of a convicted felon really want to get into a debate about houses?

"Does a guy who worries about the price of arugula and thinks regular people "cling" to guns and religion in the face of economic hardship really want to have a debate about who's in touch with regular Americans?'' Rogers asks. "The reality is that Barack Obama's plans to raise taxes and opposition to producing more energy here at home as gas prices skyrocket show he's completely out of touch with the concerns of average Americans."

The Obama ad doesn't picture any of McCain's homes. But the ad, and indeed McCain's own comments, also played into a TV campaign that labor unions already had launched this week an ad from Brave New Films featuring some of the pricey condos the McCains own:

If Sen. John McCain should win the White House, it looks like there'll be one area where his presidency could be very much like President Bush's -- his relationship with Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader.

Reid, a Nevada Democrat, doesn't really have much good to say about Bush. In 2005, when Reid was talking to a group of high schoolers, he called Bush a "loser." Reid later apologized to the president.

Reid didn't quite call McCain a loser, but In an interview with the Las Vegas News-Journal, he made clear that he doesn't have much use for the senator from Arizona.

Reid was describing a conversation he had with Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut inderpendent and former Democrat, who will have a speaking role at the Republican convention.

"He has a close personal relationship with John McCain. I don't fully understand why he does," said Reid, who said Lieberman called Tuesday from the Republic of Georgia to alert him to the move.

"I told him last night, 'You know, Joe, I can't stand John McCain.' He said, 'I know you feel that way,' " Reid said.

Here's another snippet from the story:

Reid repeated his familiar criticisms of McCain in a discussion with Review-Journal staffers Wednesday, calling the Arizona senator wrong on the issues and saying the Republican, who arrived in Congress the same year Reid did, "does not have the right temperament" to be president.

You won't see these two appearing together in two many TV ads this season: Michelle Obama and Cindy McCain.

In fact, you won't see them together in this ad either.

But you will hear them, in a remarkable show of Matt Damon channeling the words of the wives of the presidential candidates and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg - with the actor's image playing a ventriloquist's role for a bipartisan and indepent team of voices appealling for help for the world's poorest.

The ONE Campaign says it has put $1.75 million behind this ad Damon mouthing his own words and conveying the words of Bloomberg, McCain and Obama in the run-up to the Democratic and Republican conventions

. The ad campaign highlights "the lifesaving impact America is having in the poorest parts of the world thanks to support from everyday Americans and political leaders from across the spectrum,'' the group says.

The women testify that: "Millions of lives have been saved in the world's poorest countries'' and "Three million fewer chidlren die each year from preventable diseases.''

The 30-second spot, dubbed "Voices," will debut Sunday during NBC's Meet the Press and ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, as well as on several cable news and entertainment channels.

"From Iowa all the way through South Dakota and Montana, Barack and I have met so many members of the ONE Campaign who are dedicated to ensuring this country plays a leadership role in fighting global poverty and disease" the group quotes Michelle Obama as saying. "Barack believes that we all have both a security stake and a moral obligation to help those across the world most in need. It's not only the right thing to do, but it's the smart thing to do in building a stronger, safer and more just world for our children and our children's children."

"I recently traveled to Rwanda with the ONE Campaign for the first time since my visit there in 1994, at the height of the Rwandan genocide,'' Cindy McCain is quoted as saying. "I was pleased to see how simple, affordable U.S. investments are saving lives, helping transform communities and building goodwill toward America. I am proud of the ONE Campaign for spreading this message and raising the profile of these vital issues in this election."

The ONE Campaign is a global organization fighting poverty and preventable disease around the world. You can see the Matt Damon TV ad with McCain and Obama above, and at the ONE Campaign Website.

Footnote to the Democratic primary: Among the worries of the party faithful about New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was the business baggage of Bill Clinton, including his lucrative relationship with Vinod Gupta, founder and CEO of the infoUSA database and marketing firm.

Make that former CEO.

Gupta was replaced as chief executive of the Omaha-based firm as part of a proposed settlement of a shareholder suit which accused him of misspending millions in company funds, part of that on the Clintons.

Gupta, who still owns a hefty chunk of infoUSA shares, remains a board member, but turns over the reins of the company to one of its outside directors, according to an infoUSA announcement this morning.

The Federal Elections Commission voted six-zip today to ratify Sen. John McCain's position that he didn't pledge public-campaign funds to get a bank loan that helped keep his campaign afloat earlier in the election cycle. .

McCain, one of the author's of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance legislation, agreed to accept public financing for the general election. That means that after the Republican National Convention he will receive $84 million in public financing.

Before than however, McCain has been raising and spending as much campaign cash as possible.

At one stage when his campaign was really struggling for funds last year, McCain received bank loans to help keep his campaign afloat.

The Democratic National Committee alleged that McCain had used the promise of campaign funds as collateral and that by doing so he had broken the law. Not only that, if McCain had indeed pledged those future public campaign funds as collateral, he would be required to abide by federal campaign spending limits.

But the FEC, which is evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, followed the recommendation of its legal counsel whose conclusion was that McCain hadn't really pledged the public funds as collateral, after all, at least not according to a 2003 precedent set when the commission ruled on a situation involving former congressman and presidential candidate Dick Gephardt.

According to the FEC's lawyers' memo to the commission:

... Senator McCain did not pledge public funds for security for private financing and may withdraw from the Matching Payment Program. Both the bridge loan regulation at 11 C.F.R. § 9035.1(c)(3) and the bank loan regulation at 11 C.F.R. § 100.82 contemplate an unambiguous pledge of the funds as collateral and some provision in the loan agreement for the funds to be made available to the lender for purposes of retiring the debt. Here, neither the original agreement nor the "in-out-in" provision unquestionably pledges funds nor provides for any funds to be made available to Fidelity and Trust Bank. Consequently, Senator McCain never reached the "point of no return" for withdrawal from the Matching Payment Program.

In sum, we conclude that the Matching Payment Act permits withdrawal unless the candidate has actually received public funds or pledged them as security for private financing. We recommend that the Commission determine that Senator McCain may withdraw from the Matching Payment Program because he did not receive public funds nor pledge public funds as security for private financing.

About a month before President Bush announced his plans for a 'surge'' of U.S. military force in Iraq, he received a letter from a certain fellow Republican who had been publicly critical of the earlier conduct of the war.

Sen. John McCain, who was held as a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam for five and a half years, long has held that the U.S. lost that war for a lack of will to win, as our colleague James Gerstenzang notes in Countdown to Crawford today.

"The question is one of will more than capacity,'' McCain wrote to the president on Dec. 12, 2006.

"As the world's richest country, with 1.4 million troops under arms, and having contained sectarian conflict in the Balkans in the 1990s, we have the capacity to properly resource this war,'' he wrote. "It is my strong belief that we need to begin doing so immediately. If we are not willing to provide the troops necessary for victory, however, victory itself will be impossible.''

McCain's letter to the president was revealed today in the Washington Times, with a front-page splash presenting the missive of the man who now stands to claim the Republican Party's presidential nomination in September as "the climax of a 3 1/2-year effort to persuade the president to send more troops to Iraq."

Today, McCain calls the surge an unequivocal success. And Bush, whose own standing in opinion polls has plummeted with an increasing public opposition to the war, told the Times: "John recognized early on that more troops would be needed in order to achieve the security necessary for the Iraqis to make the political progress we're seeing now.''

The letter, Gerstenzang notes, draws a clear distinction between McCain and his Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, an opponent of the war in Iraq who promises to bring troops home and was launching his bid for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination at the time that Bush announced his surge. And it firmly connects McCain with the president's policy.

CHESTER, Va. - Sen. Barack Obama today painted Sen. John McCain as a defender of the rich who is so out of touch on economic matters that he does not even know how many homes he owns.

It is a theme the Illinois Democrat is reinforcing with a new television ad called "Seven" running on national cable channels.

Standing under towering pine trees with Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine at his side, Obama used a McCain interview with Politico on Wednesday to make his point as he spoke to a small audience outside a community college.

"Somebody asked John McCain how many houses do you have? And he said, I'm not sure. I'll have to check with my staff," Obama said. "True quote: 'I'm not sure. I'll have to check with my staff.'"

The actual quote, according to Politico, went this way:

"I think -- I'll have my staff get to you," McCain said. "It's condominiums where -- I'll have them get to you."

The correct answer is at least four, according to Politico, which also said Newsweek this summer estimated that McCain and his wife, Cindy, own seven.

Obama continued: "So they asked his staff, and he said, at least four. At least four. Now, think about that."

Obama also recycled an attack he used earlier this week, citing a comment McCain made last weekend where he defined "rich" as people making more than $5 million, a statement he quickly tried to correct.

"I guess if you think that being rich means you've got to make $5 million, and if you don't know how many houses you have, then it's not surprising that you might think the economy was fundamentally strong," Obama said. "But if you're like me, and you've got one house, or you are like the millions of people who are struggling right now to keep up with their mortgage so they don't lose their home, you might have a different perspective."

McCain spokesman Brian Rogers responded with a statement pointing to Obama's own increasingly comfortable life.

Imagine the S.W.A.T. team, Clinton-style.

Politico reports that the Clinton campaign has formed its own 'whip team,' a 40-member group that will keep her supporters in line during the Denver convention.

"If people get down there on the floor and want to start blowing kazoos and making a scene we want to make sure we've got people who stand in front of them with Obama signs," a source told Politico.

But the group isn't completely magnanimous. It will hand out Clinton signs to supporters who ask for them.

Want the full story? Read it here.

Jim Oliphant: So, get your text message yet?

Jim Tankersley: No. And my new rule is, no text, no veepstakes in the chat. This is non-negotiable.

Oliphant: I haven't gotten mine yet either. But this I am pret-ty sure this art student in Denmark has me confused with someone else.

As for the veep, the guessing game has reached critical mass. I've read LeBron James is "confident" it's going to be Tim Kaine, but he's also hearing Bayh's name again.

Tankersley: And your streak of mentioning Ohio sports reaches an unprecedented 12 days! Quick, tell me something about your hair. What I'm saying is, I'm not taking your running-mate bait. I refuse.

Oliphant: Sebelius up? Biden down? Hillary in an "October Surprise"?

Tankersley: Say, what do you make of that situation in Pakistan with Musharraf leaving?

Oliphant: Uh, unstable? A tinder box. Yes, a geopolitical tinder box. I think that is always the safe answer.

Do you think he would make a good veep? Build that bridge to the Muslim community?

And--do I have to say it?

Tankersley: You might as well.

Oliphant: Pretty decent head o' hair for a deposed head of state.

Tankersley: And there it is.

Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, a Cleveland-area Democrat who gained a measure of national notoriety for her staunch support of Hillary Clinton despite representing a heavily black, pro-Barack Obama district, died Wednesday.

Tubbs Jones, 58, was hospitalized last night after suffering an aneurysm.

Beyond the tragedy of early, unexpected death, Tubbs Jones' passing heaps further difficulties on a Democratic Party in Cuyahoga County already reeling from a massive federal corruption investigation targeting two of the county party's top officials.

From the perspective of presidential politics, it increases the challenge of turning out the big Democratic vote needed in northern Ohio to carry the Republican-leaning Buckeye state.

Tubbs Jones was five-term incumbent cruising to a sixth-term. A one-time prosecutor and protege of former Rep. Louis Stokes, Tubbs Jones held the unsung but politically sensitive post of chair of the Standards of Official Conduct Committee -- the House's ethics police.

"She poured her heart and soul into her job," said Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio). "She worked so hard and gave everything she could. I'm devastated. Wherever we'd go, we'd speak of each other as brother and sister. It's an incalculable loss."

The Clintons released a statement saying Tubbs Jones was a "one-woman force for progress in our country" and their friendship with her "deepened through every trial and challenge."

"Over the course of many years, with many ups and many downs, Stephanie was right by our side -- unwavering, indefatigable," they said.

Sen. Barack Obama released a statement calling Tubbs Jones "an extraordinary American and an outstanding public servant."

"It wasn't enough for her just to break barriers in her own life. She was also determined to bring opportunity to all those who had been overlooked and left behind -- and in Stephanie, they had a fearless friend and unyielding advocate," Obama said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.