For the McCain campaign, the final April fundraising numbers provide some good news and some bad news.

While the presumptive GOP nominee raised a personal record total of $17.8 million and finished the month with more than $21.7 million in cash on hand according to his campaign’s Federal Election Commission filing, McCain’s money figures still pale in comparison to the numbers put up by likely rival Barack Obama.

Despite facing an ongoing primary fight and losing four of five contests (TX, OH, RI and PA) in April, Obama still raised $31.3 million and went into May with $37.3 million in the campaign war chest. Additionally, more than 50 percent of Obama’s cash came from small donors in increments of $25 or less, while April saw McCain attend nearly daily big money fundraisers around the country. Additionally, the McCain campaign is increasingly focusing it’s attention on big donors, setting up a Victory Fund in coordination with the RNC last month that enables supporters to give up to $70,000 through multiple channels.

However, McCain campaign advisers are pointing to the large haul last month by the Republican National Committee and it’s mammoth cash advantage over the Democratic National Committee. The RNC outraised the DNC by $11 million in April–$15.7 million vs. $4.7 million–and finished the month with a nearly $35 million cash advantage–$40.1 vs. $4.4 million.

When combined, McCain/RNC fundraising nearly matches the Obama/DNC total and the GOPers hold a $20 million+ advantage in cash on hand. While Obama, Clinton and the DNC set up a joint fundraising committee in the last week and the DNC has launched multiple ads and efforts attacking McCain, the continuing primary fight still formally prevents Obama and the DNC from completely coordinating fundraising, messaging and political efforts. McCain and the RNC have no such issue have been working in unison for nearly three months.

President Bush will hit the money trail with McCain in Phoenix on Tuesday afternoon for a major fundraiser–including a private reception for donors giving $25,000+. The President will then join Mitt Romney (without McCain) for two fundraisers in Utah the following day, including an evening event for donors giving or collecting a minimum of $30,800 at Romney’s Park City, UT home.

North Bend, WA—

Even though he came to the Pacific Northwest to talk about the environment, Senator John McCain had to deal with a controversial endorser making news. McCain supporter, John Hagee apologized to Catholics today for offensive comments he has made. He wrote a letter to Bill Donohue, the president of the Catholic League for Civil and Religious Rights saying, “I want to express my deep regret for any comments that Catholics have found hurtful.” Donohue has accepted Hagee’s apology.

McCain has heavily courted the religious right, but flatly rejected many of Hagee’s more controversial remarks. Even with those repudiations the presumptive Republican nominee faced heavy criticism for seeking out the evangelical leader’s endorsement.

McCain denied having anything to do with brokering today’s apology, but that he appreciates the reconciliation, “I believe the fact that these two individuals came together is a laudable thing and a testimony to both individuals and their principles, which are Judeo-Christian values.”

He added that he hasn’t “endorsed everything that he said,” referring to Hagee, but that he saw the apology as helpful, “Whenever somebody apologizes for something they think that they did wrong then I think that that’s a laudable thing to do.”

The Democratic National Committee reacted to Hagee’s apology saying that McCain should renounce his endorsement immediately and issued a scathing response, “Now that Reverend Hagee is apologizing for his anti-Catholic comments, does John McCain think that Hagee should also apologize for his other comments?  If so, will he have the courage to say so publicly? Unless John McCain’s idea of being a new kind of Republican includes cozying up to radicals who compare women to dogs, hold racially insensitive fundraisers and call one of the worst natural disasters in our country’s history God’s punishment, he should renounce John Hagee’s endorsement immediately. Given John McCain’s history of putting political calculations ahead of his principles, we’re not holding our breath.”

The Democratic National Committee continues to use McCain’s ‘100 years in Iraq’ comments in it’s latest TV ad, as part it’s ongoing attempt to cast a potential McCain administration as third Bush term. To hammer home it’s point, McCain’s exchange with a New Hampshire townhall-goer is repeated twice in the ad which also showcases explosions and some of the more grim statistics from Iraq.

The dispute over McCain’s 100 years exchange has been ongoing for nearly five months: McCain is talking about a 100 year-plus peacetime troop presence while Democrats are construing the remarks to argue that the presumptive Republican nominee is in favor of 100 years of war. Since a number of media outlets called the Democrats out on distorting McCain’s words, Sens. Clinton, Obama and the DNC have backtracked a bit from much-criticized early language and now stick to stating that McCain endorses a 100-year occupation of Iraq (closer to the truth but still not completely accurate).

In this ad, the DNC takes the simple approach and tries the McCain’s words speak for themselves (albeit without the full context). Of course, the RNC was quick to put a statement Sunday calling the ad a “distortion.”

“Over the course of the next six months, we expect the DNC to wage a respectful and honest campaign, which means adhering to the law. Howard Dean and the DNC should immediately cease and desist from airing these advertisements. And if the DNC fails to act, both Senators Clinton and Obama should immediately call on them to do so,” the statement read.

done

Pittsburgh, PA — Sen. Hillary Clinton used some of her most direct language yet Thursday as she attacked Sen. Barack Obama for what she sees is his non-effort to resolve the Florida and Michigan primary conundrum.

“He doesn’t want the votes to count, lets not mince words here. Senator Obama has been very, very clear ‘do not count those votes, or come up with some kind of resolution that disenfranchises people by taking away their right to have voted for whom they have voted for and neither of those is acceptable to Michigan and Florida voters and I wouldn’t agree with that either,” she said during a media availability Thursday. “I did agree with a total re-vote and just throw it up in the air and see what happens and he wouldn’t do that.”

Asked if she planned to propose her own solution for ensuring that Florida and Michigan Democrats have a role in determining the ultimate Democratic nominee she said her campaign does not intend to offer a plan–outlining a potential battle at the Democratic Convention this summer.

“If it has to go to a credentials committee, then it has to go to a credentials committee, that’s what they are there for, you know, they’ve had to resolve credentialing and rules fights in the past and they will have to resolve this one,” she said.

The DNC stripped Florida and Michigan of their convention delegates last year after both states moved up their primaries and conflicted with the planned party voting schedule. Clinton won both state primaries (though she was the only major candidate on the MI ballot and no campaigning took place in FL) giving the Democratic underdog an opportunity to have a chance at catching up in the popular vote and delegate battle if she wins the fight to have both states represented at the summer convention.

During her press conference today, she couched the vote counting battle in language that slammed her own party for what she sees as a lackadaisical effort to resolve the primary dispute.

“I really don’t understand why the Republican party very clearly decided what they were going to do and the Democratic party can’t decide. I also don’t understand how you can disenfranchise voters in two states you have to try to win. I don’t think that is smart for the Democratic party,” she said. “This continuing call on my part (to count the votes) ….is in the best interest of the Democratic party.”

Republican National Committee officials are fuming over Howard Dean’s attack on Sen. McCain as a “blatant opportunist” in a statement issued by the Democratic National Committee Chairman Friday morning.

Responding to news of McCain’s scheduled biography tour to highlight his service record next week, Dean said, “Americans want a real leader who offers real solutions, not a blatant opportunist who doesn’t understand the economy and is promising to keep our troops in Iraq for 100 years.”

“I think it’s an assault on Senator McCain’s character,” said RNC spokesman Alex Conant. “It certainly goes beyond the pale of what we expect– even from Chairman Dean.”

The Dean statement read in full: “The American people have been waiting for a president who understands the challenges they face, not another out of touch Bush Republican who promises four more years of the same failed leadership. John McCain can try to reintroduce himself to the country, but he can’t change the fact that he cast aside his principles to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with President Bush for the last seven years. While we honor McCain’s military service, the fact is Americans want a real leader who offers real solutions, not a blatant opportunist who doesn’t understand the economy and is promising to keep our troops in Iraq for 100 years.”

RNC Deputy Chairman Frank Donatelli responded this afternoon with a statement of his own. “Howard Dean owes John McCain an immediate apology and both Senators Clinton and Obama should unequivocally denounce this disgraceful attack,” Donatelli said.

Conant said the RNC intends to keep the dialogue “respectful,” referring to a memo put out by McCain Campaign Manager Rick Davis earlier this month calling on Republicans to keep the campaign “focused on the issues.”

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean is calling on Democrats to donate cash in order to ensure Sen. John McCain “doesn’t get a free ride,” in an email sent out to supporters Friday.

As the two Democrats continue to battle for the nomination, Dean tells supporters that they “can’t be complacent,” warning that “every day that goes by where we don’t answer John McCain’s attacks means another opportunity missed, and it erases the work we’ve done so far.” At the start of the month, the DNC trailed their Republican counterparts by more than $20 million in cash on hand.

“We can’t allow John McCain to crisscross the country, fooling the American people with his ‘more of the same’ agenda,” Dean wrote in the email.

Full email…

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Chula Vista, CA– Sen. John McCain slammed his Democratic rivals Monday for their continued calls for withdrawal from Iraq despite what he says is clear evidence that the effort on the ground is succeeding.

Citing an audio tape released last week by Osama bin Laden in which the terrorist leader stressed the importance of an al Qaeda victory in Iraq, the presumptive GOP nominee said Sens. Obama and Clinton “refuse to understand what’s being said and what’s happening.”

“General Petraeus is correct when he says that the central battle ground in the struggle against Al Qaeda is Iraq and Osama Bin Laden just confirmed that,” McCain told about 200 attendees at a town hall meeting in Chula Vista—his first since returning from a week-long trip to the region. “So General Petraeus and I and Osama Bin Laden are in agreement. It is hard to understand why Senator Clinton and Senator Obama do not understand that. I don’t know if its naïveté or what the problem is, but it’s obvious that they are dead wrong and they are wrong when they say we should leave Iraq immediately.”

In a tape first aired by al-Jazeera Thursday, bin Laden said that “Iraq is the Jihad theater that would lead to the liberation of Palestine. The Jihad in Iraq should be supported in order to liberate Palestine.”

McCain lauded progress he said he witnessed on the ground in Iraq last week, adding that it shows “the surge is succeeding and it’s time that (Democrats) acknowledged that the surge is succeeding and the benefits of success in Iraq will spread through the Middle East, including a stable society, a stable government, a bastion of Democracy–flawed but functioning.”

The Democratic National Committee was quick to respond this afternoon, attempting to draw a distinction between McCain and Petraeus. Noting that while the top American General said last week that “Iraqi leaders have failed to take advantage of a reduction in violence to make adequate progress toward resolving their political differences,” McCain failed to put any pressure on the Iraqi government during his visit, said DNC Communications Director Karen Finney.

“McCain continues his pattern of parroting the Bush Administration’s misleading rhetoric on the war. General Petraeus was right to point out that Iraq’s leaders have not made the political progress the surge was supposed to make possible, yet John McCain’s only plan for Iraq is 100 years of President Bush’s open-ended commitment to a failed strategy,” Finney said. “The brave soldiers fighting in Iraq don’t need another Republican president who talks about trusting General Petraeus then ignores his advice.”

With it’s latest web video, the Democratic National Committee continues to connect McCain and President Bush. For it’s part the campaign does not believe Bush’s approval ratings will be a drain on them in November and plans to use him to rally the base and raise cash during the next eight months.

With no immediate end in sight for the Democratic primary, the Democratic National Committee is keeping it’s eye on the prize and pushing it’s supporters to donate some cash to keep the heat on Sen. John McCain.

In a fundraising pitch sent out to supporters Wednesday, the DNC argued that Democrats “can’t afford to let (John McCain) get ahead.”

Writes DNC Executive Director Tom McMahon, “while Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama continue their campaign, we have to be focused on John McCain.” (see full e-mail after jump)

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The Obama campaign released a new ad today, airing nationally on CNN and MSNBC - pretty innocuous except that it will hit airwaves in Florida (as well as 49 other states). Because Democrats signed a pledge sponsored by the DNC promising they would not campaign in the Sunshine State after Florida pushed its primary up against the DNC’s wishes. The state was stripped of delegates and Democrats vowed not to campaign there.The Clinton campaign picked up on the Obama ad and pounced, saying on a conference call this was a violation of the pledge and that Clinton would now consider campaigning in Florida in retaliation.

“Both national cable networks told us it would be impossible for us to run advertising nationally that excluded only Florida.  For that reason we consulted with the South Carolina Democratic Party Chair Carol Fowler who told us unequivocally she did not consider this to be in violation of pledge made to the early states,” Obama spokesman Bill Burton said in response.

The Obama campaign then arranged its own conference call with campaign manager, David Plouffe, who said he believes the Clinton campaign has been looking for a way to break their own pledge not to compete in Florida. This seemingly small window was their opportunity and is part of a pattern of “playing outside the lines” on the part of the Clinton campaign. As evidence, Plouffe cited previous incidents in Nevada, when Clinton precinct captains allegedly tried to shut caucus sites early, and Iowa, where the Clinton campaign didn’t approve of Obama encouraging out of state students to caucus. This type of behavior, Plouffe said, shows that Clinton is willing to “win at all costs.”

The Obama campaign will not campaign in Florida - even if Clinton does. This campaign is about delegates, and Florida has none.