posted on August 24, 2004 07:57:27 PM new
Bush = liars and weasels, and military deserters.
Aug. 24, 2004 — By Adam Entous
CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - A top lawyer for President Bush's re-election campaign has been providing legal advice to the group that has accused Democrat John Kerry of lying about his Vietnam War record, informed sources said on Tuesday.
The sources, who asked not to be identified, said Ben Ginsberg, the Bush campaign's chief outside counsel, has also been giving legal advice to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the group that is attacking Kerry.
Bush's campaign insists it has no relationship with the group and has denied Kerry's charge that it is a front for the president's re-election team.
The Bush campaign declined to comment on the disclosure that Ginsberg is tied to the Swift Boat group, which has run a series of television commercials assailing Kerry and accusing him of lying about his service during the Vietnam war.
Bush campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel said: "There has been no coordination at any time."
As a young Navy lieutenant commanding a gunboat in Vietnam, Kerry was decorated five times for valor and sustaining combat wounds. He still carries shrapnel in his leg from one of those wounds.
Ginsberg is the second person working for the Bush campaign who has been linked to the group attacking Kerry.
"It's another piece of the mounting evidence of the ties between the Bush campaign and this group," said Kerry campaign spokesman Chad Clanton.
The Massachusetts senator has called the Swift Boat ads inaccurate and has asked the Federal Election Commission to force the ads to be withdrawn, alleging illegal coordination between the group and the Bush campaign.
Records show the Swift Boat group received some of its funding from long-time Bush supporters. Its new commercial also features one veteran, Ken Cordier, who was on a Bush campaign committee until last week, when he was forced to quit.
The Bush campaign has both an outside and an inside counsel. Ginsberg also served as chief outside counsel to the Bush campaign in 2000.
Federal election rules bar organizations that take unrestricted donations from coordinating their activities with campaigns or political parties.
Bush said on Monday the Swift Boat ads should be stopped along with others run by independent groups. He said Kerry should be proud of his war service.
However, Bush stopped short of condemning the group or its specific accusations that the Democratic presidential candidate lied about his war record.
The Kerry campaign has called on Bush to condemn the ads publicly and directly.
The Bush campaign says left-leaning groups have spent $63.5 million on ads attacking Bush over the last 12 months and it has filed its own FEC complaint alleging abuse by Kerry.
posted on August 24, 2004 08:07:06 PM new
Why not post a article with a link or is this one of your AP posts? Still no proof of collusion.
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Attorney Works for Bush, Anti-Kerry Group
Tue Aug 24, 7:45 PM ET
By SHARON THEIMER, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - A lawyer for President Bush (news - web sites)'s re-election campaign disclosed Tuesday that he has been providing legal advice for a veterans group that is challenging Democratic Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites)'s account of his Vietnam War service.
Benjamin Ginsberg's acknowledgment marks the second time in days that an individual associated with the Bush-Cheney campaign has been connected to the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which Kerry accuses of being a front for the Republican incumbent's re-election effort.
The Bush campaign and the veterans' group say there is no coordination.
The group "came to me and said, 'We have a point of view we want to get into the First Amendment debate right now. There's a new law. It's very complicated. We want to comply with the law, will you keep us in the bounds of the law?'" Ginsberg said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I said yes, absolutely, as I would do for anyone."
[v]Ginsberg said he never told the Bush campaign what he discussed with the group, or vice versa, and doesn't advise the group on ad strategies.[/b]
"They have legal questions and when they have legal questions I answer them," Ginsberg said. He said he had not yet decided whether to charge the Swift Boat Veterans a fee for his work.
Kerry's presidential campaign last week filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (news - web sites) accusing the Bush campaign and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth of illegally coordinating the group's ads. The ads allege Kerry has lied about his decorated Vietnam War service; the group's accounts in a television ad have been disputed by Navy records and veterans who served on Kerry's boat.
"It's another piece of the mounting evidence of the ties between the Bush campaign and this group," Kerry campaign spokesman Chad Clanton said of Ginsberg's admission. "The longer President Bush waits to specifically condemn this smear, the more it looks like his campaign is behind it."
On Saturday, retired Air Force Col. Ken Cordier resigned as a member of the Bush campaign's veterans' steering committee after it was learned that he appeared in the Swift Boat veterans' commercial.
Kerry, meanwhile, is the subject of complaints by the Bush campaign and the Republican National Committee (news - web sites) accusing his campaign of illegally coordinating anti-Bush ads with soft-money groups on the Democratic side, allegations he and the groups deny.
Ginsberg also represented the Bush campaign in 2000 and became a prominent figure during the Florida recount.
He also served as counsel to the RNC in its unsuccessful lawsuit seeking to overturn the nation's campaign finance law, which banned the national party committees from collecting corporate, union and unlimited donations known as soft money and imposed stricter rules on coordination involving parties, candidates and interest groups.
Ginsberg contends that by offering legal advice to both the Bush campaign and the Swift Boat group, he has done nothing different than other election lawyers in Washington, including attorneys for Kerry and the Democratic National Committee (news - web sites) who have also advised soft-money groups. Representing campaigns, parties and outside groups simultaneously is legal and allowed under the law and by the FEC, he said.
"The truth is there is only a handful of lawyers who live and breathe this law. And so because the coordination rules do not include legal services among the prohibited coordinated activities, we provide legal service," Ginsberg said.
Larry Noble, head of the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics campaign watchdog group and former FEC general counsel, said it's true that serving as a lawyer for both a campaign and a soft-money group isn't considered automatic evidence of coordination under commission rules, but added that it doesn't mean the FEC won't look at it.
"I think there's a valid question about when you're talking about strictly legal advice and when you're talking about policy issues and strategic issues," Noble said. "It's fair to ask what the advice is about."
Joe Sandler, a lawyer for the DNC and a group running anti-Bush ads, MoveOn.org, said there is nothing wrong with serving in both roles at once.
In addition to the FEC's coordination rules, attorneys are ethically bound to maintain attorney-client confidentiality, Sandler said. They could lose their law license if they violate that, he said.
posted on August 24, 2004 08:16:38 PM new
Bear, You really do need to go back to your bunker. This Swift boat ad is coming back to bite your guys in the butt.
Prevent Bigotry through Education.