Posted on 08/25/2004 11:18:25 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Kerry camp's bid to deliver protest letter turned away at Bush's ranch
CRAWFORD - The Vietnam attack ad controversy that has increasingly dogged the presidential campaign almost consumed the race Wednesday.
Vietnam veteran and former Democratic Sen. Max Cleland traveled to President Bush's ranch, but was not allowed to give him a letter protesting ads challenging John Kerry's military service.
Hours earlier, a top Bush lawyer resigned from his campaign after disclosing he had given legal advice to the veterans group behind the television ads.
As both sides continued to wrestle over commercials by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, Republican Sen. John McCain, the former Vietnam POW who has praised Kerry's war record and campaigned with Bush, urged both sides to end the three-week argument.
"I just wish very much we would address the war we're fighting now and not reopen wounds of one that ended 30 years ago," McCain said.
Vietnam veterans began running ads earlier this month claiming that Kerry lied about his war record. Democrats have charged that the independent group's leaders and top funders are linked to the GOP and Bush family.
On Wednesday, Republicans continued to point out that law firms on the Democratic side are also representing both the campaign or party and outside groups running anti-Bush ads.
Other developments, meanwhile, suggested Democrats and Republicans aren't close to ending their war of words.
•Houston attorney John O'Neill, the chief critic of Kerry's military record, told President Nixon in 1971 that he had been in Cambodia in a swift boat during Vietnam War, which contradicts recent statements that he was not. O'Neill told the Associated Press Wednesday that he did not dispute what he said to Nixon, but insisted that he was never actually in Cambodia. •More evidence supporting Kerry's version of events that led to his Bronze Star and third Purple Heart was uncovered by the Associated Press. A Navy report from a military unit known as Task Force 115 says Kerry was under enemy fire on March 13, 1969, when he plucked one of his comrades from a river. •Democratic congressman John Dingell of Michigan asked Attorney General John Ashcroft to investigate alleged links between Bush's campaign and the Swift Boat Veterans. As Bush prepares for his party's convention next week in New York, the dispute has increasingly drowned out debate over other pressing issues such as Iraq, the economy and the war on terror.
A month after he shared the stage with Kerry at the Democratic convention, Cleland and other surrogates were dispatched to Bush's ranch by the Kerry campaign.
The former Georgia senator, who lost three limbs in Vietnam, tried to deliver a letter from nine Democratic senators calling on Bush to condemn what they called "the blatant attempt at character assassination" by the swift boat group.
Secret Service agents and other law enforcement officials declined to accept Cleland's letter. Cleland, in turn, refused to give the letter to Texas Land Commissioner and Vietnam veteran Jerry Patterson, who said he had been authorized by the president to take it.
"The question is, 'Where is George Bush's honor?' The question is, 'Where is his shame?' " Cleland said.
Patterson said the Bush campaign called him in Wednesday morning to confront Cleland and present him with a letter criticizing Kerry's Vietnam protests.
"You can't build your convention and much of your campaign around your service in Vietnam, and then try to say that only those veterans who agree with you have a right to speak up," stated the letter signed by Patterson and seven other veterans.
Patterson's top campaign contributor, Houston home builder Bob Perry, donated $200,000 to the swift boats group and is a top GOP donor in the state, fueling links to the Bush campaign.
In a rare television interview, top White House adviser Karl Rove told the Fox News Channel that Perry was "a good friend" who he had seen briefly within the last year. But Rove said the two "certainly did not discuss with him or anybody else in the swift boat leadership what they're doing."
Earlier Wednesday, Benjamin Ginsberg, who also represented Bush in the 2000 Florida recount that made the Republican president, told Bush in a letter that he felt his legal work for the Swift Boat Veterans had become a distraction for the re-election campaign.
But Republicans continued to assail Democratic links to similar groups that turn soft money contributions into attack ads.
Washington attorney Joe Sandler represents the Democratic National Committee and MoveOn.org. Robert Bauer, the top legal counsel for the Kerry campaign, is also the attorney for America Coming Together.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chronicle wire services contributed to this story.
bennett.roth@chron.com
I need to mention that news about the Swift Boat Veterans has been practically absent in the Houston Chronicle News.
I wish there were some way to change the system so that
newspapers HAD to compete in every major market, such as not
allowing them to grow over a certain percentage of the market.
"Houston, we have a problem..."
Why does anyone buy this liberal rag in Houston? They whine about their declining readership and then offer up vomit like this. Isn't there anyone who could start a conservative paper for the state of Texas, ala USA Today?
Huge classified sections.
They ran the Conservative Houston Post (founded by the Hobby family) out of business.
The Chronicle has always received it's marching orders from the downtown watering holes that local democratic party "movers and shakers" frequented.
I know this to be true because I listened in as I mixed their drinks.
The conservatives consumed their libations at River Oaks Country Club, The Petroleum Club and the Houston Country Club.
I always worked the best houses and tending bar in 1970's Houston was a gas and highly profitable.
BTW, conservatives were much better tippers than liberals and conservatives never whined like the bleeding heart liberals were prone to do.
If NOT -- SHUT UP!
Didn't Max decline to allow SS agents or anyone else to accept the letter, demanding he be able to hand it directly to Bush? I didn't see the encounter, but I've read plenty. It seems the Chronicle isn't being fair or honest in their portrayal of the events.
I think the SS declined to accept it and guarantee its delivery to Bush, and Cleland refused to give it to Bush's representative.
The media was caught in their own pompous trap, and now, neither they nor Kerry can get out.
My dad canceled his sub last week. I never had one. I get IBD.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.