Bush calls for end to all ads run by outside groups
BY RICK PEARSON AND FRANK JAMES
Chicago Tribune
CRAWFORD, Texas - (KRT) - President Bush on Monday said TV ads that question John Kerry's military service should be stopped, along with those run by other outside groups, but Democrats contended he did not go far enough and said he should demand that the controversial commercials attacking Kerry be taken off the air.
Speaking to reporters at his Texas ranch following a meeting on the nation's defense priorities, Bush for the first time specifically addressed the commercials aired by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which has strong GOP fund-raising ties. The group's ads attack Kerry's service in Vietnam and his antiwar activities after returning home as a decorated veteran.
While Bush again said Kerry served "admirably" in the military and "ought to be proud of his record," the president did not denounce the swift-boat ads for their content. Instead, he said those ads and other activities funded by so-called 527 groups, which have the ability to accept unlimited amounts of money to promote political agendas, should be stopped in the interests of campaign finance reform.
The Bush campaign has contended that it has been targeted by $63 million worth of attack advertising by groups supporting Kerry. Those ads have helped supplement Kerry's campaign, which is now limited to spending the $75 million in public financing it received after the Massachusetts senator formally accepted his party's presidential nomination at the recent Democratic National Convention.
The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth had spent about $452,000 on advertising in Ohio, Wisconsin and West Virginia through Saturday, according to the political ad-tracking TNS Media Intelligence/CMAG.
Kerry made no public statements Monday, preparing for a speech Tuesday that is expected to criticize the Bush campaign for negativity. But Kerry's running mate, Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., said Bush failed "to take responsibility and demand that the ad come off the air."
The president's remarks and Kerry's planned criticism of the Bush campaign threaten to extend for several more days a political battle rooted in controversy over a war fought more than three decades ago.
While both campaigns have tried to move forward to some degree with discussion of current issues, Kerry also has been forced to try to deflect the negativity of the swift-boat ads. The intense criticism of his military record has come after he promoted that record during the Democratic convention in an effort to show that he can be a wartime commander-in-chief.
While Democrats acknowledge that Kerry's campaign has been dented by the swift-boat attack ads, they also believes the campaign can turn those problems around if it can demonstrate a pattern of negative campaigning by Bush forces. That is the focus of the Kerry campaign's latest TV ad, contending Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., dealt with similar "smears" about his war record during the 2000 GOP presidential primary season.
Kerry's campaign has maintained in a formal complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission that the Bush campaign has illegal ties to the swift-boat veterans group. The Bush campaign has denied any coordination of activities between itself and the veterans' group, which would be illegal, and had previously filed a complaint alleging collusion between the Kerry campaign and personnel affiliated with Democratic-aligned groups. The Kerry campaign also has denied any illegal coordination.
Asked by reporters if he was specifically calling for an end to the swift-boat ad, Bush responded: "All of them. That means that ad, every other ad, absolutely. I don't think we ought to have 527s. I can't be more plain about it."
For weeks, Bush has said he believed campaign-finance reform legislation he signed into law two years ago would have "gotten rid of" the groups, which are called 527s because they are covered under that section of the federal revenue code. The groups can raise unlimited amounts of money to finance political advocacy advertisements.
But a co-sponsor of the campaign-reform law, Russ Feingold, D-Wis., said the measure had no effect on 527 groups and "the president knew that."
The founder of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, retired Adm. Roy Hoffmann, said the group had no ties to the Bush campaign and planned to continue airing its message.
The Kerry campaign, meanwhile, held a conference call with three swift-boat veterans who were stationed with the candidate in Vietnam.
Rich Baker of Pittsburgh, Rich McCann of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and Jim Russell of Telluride, Colo., said they voluntarily came forward because they were disturbed that some of the same men who honored Kerry for meritorious service, and later supported him for the Senate, were now attacking him in his run for the presidency.
Russell said he was in An Thoi on March 13, 1969, the day Army Special Forces Lt. James Rassmann was thrown from his boat and rescued by Kerry, who earned the Bronze Star for his actions.
"My recollection is that we were under fire off and on during the whole time this incident took place," Russell said. "My direct recollection is of seeing John Kerry bend over his boat and pick up the soldier out of the water, that (Kerry's) boat was by itself up river."
The three veterans were sharply critical of remarks that Bob Dole, a former Republican presidential nominee and former Kansas senator, made on CNN on Sunday. Dole, echoing some of the attacks by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, said Kerry's war wounds were "superficial."
On Monday, Dole said on CNN that he received a phone call from a "disappointed" Kerry.
"I wasn't trying to be mean-spirited," Dole said he explained to Kerry. "I was just trying to say all these guys on the other side just can't be Republican liars. Maybe there's some truth."
Dole, a decorated World War II veteran whose right arm was disabled by Nazi gunfire in Italy, said the Bush campaign did not encourage him to criticize Kerry.
Dole said he wanted the Kerry campaign to stop casting doubt on the actions of Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney during the Vietnam War. Bush served in the Texas Air National Guard, and some Democrats have accused him of being absent without leave during part of his tenure. Cheney, who got five deferments and did not serve in the military, was labeled a coward by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, last week.
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