Smart move by Bush........
<font size=4>Bush Calls McCain About Ads by Outside Groups
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August 26, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LAS CRUCES, N.M. -- <font size=4>President Bush wants to work with Republican Sen. John McCain to go to court against political ads by <font color=blue>"shadowy"<font color=black> outside groups, the White House said Thursday<font size=3> amid growing pressure on the president to denounce attacks on John Kerry's war record.
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"We want to pursue court action,"<font color=black> Bush spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to New Mexico. <font color=red>"The president said if the court action doesn't work, that he would be willing to pursue legislative action with Sen. McCain on that." <font color=black>
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McClellan did not say when any of those steps would be taken. Election Day is Nov. 2.
The debate over Kerry's service in Vietnam has dominated the presidential race in recent weeks after the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth aired ads questioning the Democratic nominee's decorated record.
McCain, R-Ariz., has called on Bush to condemn the anti-Kerry ads, even as the war hero popular with many independent voters is actively supporting Bush's re-election. The senator welcomed Bush's gesture.
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"I'm very appreciative of the president's effort to do that," <font color=black>McCain said in an interview with The Associated Press. <font color=red>"I want to emphasize if I could that we're not saying that 527s should be abolished. We're just saying they should live under the same campaign finance restrictions (as hard money groups) because they are engaged in partisan activity." <font color=black>
McCain added: <font color=red>"I've said before I would like for the president to specifically condemn that ad, but the president has said John Kerry served honorably and also the president is now committed to acting to try to bring 527s into regulations that are appropriate."
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Bush called McCain from Air Force One and the two had a brief discussion about the matter, McClellan said.
Bush has criticized all outside group attack ads, including the Swift Boat Veterans group's first commercial. He has said he wants the ads to stop,<font size=3> but has not explicitly condemned the charges made in the Swift Boat ad.
It wasn't immediately clear whether the court action envisioned by the Bush team would target all outside ads, or only those aired by the Democratic side.
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McClellan said the goal is <font color=red>"to shut down all of this activity by these shadowy groups."<font color=black>
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But the only complaint the Bush campaign and the GOP have filed with the Federal Election Commission accused the Kerry campaign of illegally coordinating millions of dollars worth of anti-Bush ads with Democratic-leaning soft-money groups, Bush-Cheney spokesman Scott Stanzel said.
It was the FEC's May 13 decision not to act on the complaint that allows the Bush campaign to turn to legal action, McClellan said.
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"The FEC had an opportunity to act,"<font color=black> McClellan said. <font color=red>"They did not act so that allows those who filed those complaints to pursue action against the FEC." <font color=black>
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The Kerry campaign filed its own complaint last week with the FEC, alleging that Swift Boat Veterans for Truth was illegally coordinating its efforts with the Bush-Cheney campaign.
All sides deny the allegations, and neither campaign has produced proof of coordination on the part of its rival.
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Mike Russell, a spokesman for the Swift Boat group, said Thursday that <font color=purple>"we're going to continue doing what we're doing because this group is made up of more than 250 veterans who feel it is their obligation to tell the truth about John Kerry's military service."
"We're obviously going to abide by the spirit and letter of the law but as it sits right now 527s are free to operate and we're going to continue to do so,"<font color=black> he said.
In a separate but related matter, McCain said he wanted Kerry to stop using him in advertising that denounces the anti-Kerry swift boat group. <font color=red>"I very much do not want them to use clips from my primary campaign against the president,"<font color=black> said the Republican, who lost to Bush in 2000 and is joining the president on the campaign trail this week. The Kerry campaign pulled those ads on Thursday.
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