Ben Ginsberg, the Bush campaign counsel who resigned Wednesday, fought back against the media's double standard on the subject of legal counsel overlaps between campaigns, parties and 527 groups. When Nightline anchor Chris Bury on Wednesday said "hold on, Mr. Ginsberg. Jake Tapper in his report just laid out many of those ties" between Democrats, Kerry and Bush-bashing 527 groups, Ginsberg fired back: "Yeah, and this was the first time and they've been running those ads since March, Chris. Where were you?" Near the end of the contentious interview in which Bury pounded away about how the Bush campaign left its "dirty work" to the anti-Kerry veterans, Ginsberg asserted: "I think that's a double standard involved in this, and frankly the questions in this interview are indicative of that double standard."
Ben Ginsberg Fights Back, Confronts ABC's
Bury With His Bias 
Ben Ginsberg, the Bush campaign counsel who resigned Wednesday, fought back against the media's double standard on the subject of legal counsel overlaps between campaigns, parties and 527 groups. When Nightline anchor Chris Bury on Wednesday said "hold on, Mr. Ginsberg. Jake Tapper in his report just laid out many of those ties" between Democrats, Kerry and Bush-bashing 527 groups, Ginsberg fired back: "Yeah, and this was the first time and they've been running those ads since March, Chris. Where were you?" Near the end of the contentious interview in which Bury pounded away about how the Bush campaign left its "dirty work" to the anti-Kerry veterans, Ginsberg asserted: "I think that's a double standard involved in this, and frankly the questions in this interview are indicative of that double standard."
[The MRC's Jessica Anderson submitted a draft of this item for CyberAlert]
The night before, in the "Closing Thoughts" on Tuesday's Nightline, Bury lectured about the irrelevancy of Kerry's Vietnam record: "You'd think the two campaigns, and the pack that covers them, might want to focus more attention on the war that's still claiming the lives of young American men and women, and less on the one that ended nearly 30 years ago."
On Wednesday, Bury opened the August 25 program with his judgment that "presidential campaigns like to have it both ways" and "they'd prefer to have their candidates take the high road and leave the dirty work of slinging mud to others. That allows the candidates to claim clean hands, even if it's sometimes done with a wink and a nod."
After Bury fretted about the "loophole in campaign finance laws" which allowed the ads from Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, to which Ginsberg had provided legal advise on how to comply with the law, reporter Jake Tapper reminded viewers in a taped piece: "For weeks, now, the Bush campaign has been denying any involvement at all with the anti-Kerry veterans running those harsh ads....So late last night, when the Bush campaign's valued national counsel Ben Ginsberg disclosed he'd been giving legal advice to the group, it became a problem. By lunchtime today, Ginsberg had offered his resignation."
Tapper, however, as he had done earlier on World News Tonight, actually shined the spotlight on the lopsided financial support of anti-Bush 527s: "Whether this opposition to 527s is principle or politics or both, President Bush is far more victim than beneficiary of these ads. While the Bush campaign is slightly ahead in fund-raising overall, according to Federal Election documents, $145 million has been raised by independent groups tied to Democrats, compared to just $9 million by those tied to Republicans." Tapper also pointed out that although Ginsberg is the third person affiliated with the Bush campaign who's been linked to SBVT, the Democrats hypocritically have their own 527 connections: "MoveOn.org's lawyer, Joe Sandler, also works for the Democratic Party, which works directly with the Kerry campaign. Former Clinton White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Harold Ickes, advises both [America Coming Together] and the Democratic National Committee. Attorney Bob Bauer works for ACT, did work for the Kerry campaign, and is now paid by the DNC to give legal advice to the Kerry campaign. And Bill Knapp made TV ads for The Media Fund and now makes them for Kerry....The Kerry campaign says, unlike Ginsberg, none of these Democrats with ties to outside groups are current senior Kerry staffers."
In spite of Ginsberg's attempts to defend his actions during his interview with Bury, explaining that "the law is very specific about those types of work that cannot be done by campaigns in 527 groups" and "legal services, which I do, is not among those prohibited coordinated activities," Bury made clear his position that Ginsberg was completely in the wrong through his questions, exemplified by the following exchange in the pre-taped session with Ginsberg, who appeared from New York (with Bury in DC):
Bury: "So why did you not then inform, presuming that you did not, inform a top member of the Bush campaign or the White House that you were, in fact, advising this outside group?"
Ginsberg: "Well, three reasons. Number one is that I'm a lawyer in a private law firm and I have multiple clients."
Bury: "Yeah, but this client is the campaign. Let me just interrupt, you have multiple clients, but not every client is the President of the United States or his campaign, and there's a legal question and a political question. Politically, I'm just curious why you wouldn't have informed the campaign that you were, in fact, working for this outside group."
Ginsberg: "Well, Chris, because of the legal reasons, and the legal reasons are that as a lawyer you have an element of, or a vow of confidentiality, so that you can't tell one client about the activities of a second client. Number two, is that the law also requires that there not be improper coordination between the campaign and a 527 group, so that I would be putting both clients in risk if I told them that information. And number three was that my Democratic counterparts, the attorneys for both the Kerry campaign and the Democratic National Committee, were, long before I started, representing both -- precisely the same situation that I was in."
Bury continued to protest: "But with all due respect, even given your fine reputation as a lawyer, there are a lot of lawyers in Washington and you could easily have said no when you were asked for this advice."
Ginsberg: "I could have, but as my Democrats counterparts, there are, in fact, only a few of us who do practice this sort of law. [Ginsberg explained how he was "approached by decorated military veterans" who wanted help to comply with law] I was honored to be asked and absolutely would do it, and frankly, Chris, despite any insinuations in your questions, I'd do it again."
Bury insisted: "No insinuations intended, but the question I have is are you and were you entirely comfortable with the message that that group put out in its TV ads?"
Ginsberg: "My job as a lawyer is to be sure that they're complying with the law. I'm not a political consultant. I don't do message. I don't do strategy. What I was convinced of was the sincerity and indeed the honesty of those men, who have now been libeled and their speech threatened because the Kerry campaign and the Democrats don't like it and frankly I think it's shameful that decorated veterans who want to express their views in a campaign should be been vilified and smeared by the Kerry operation."
After the commercial break, Bury continued his line of questioning, establishing that Ginsberg knew the content of the ads: "You knew about the content, and the question I want to ask, then, is President Bush has consistently and repeatedly said in this campaign that he thought the conduct of John Kerry was, to use the President's word, that he had served 'admirably' in Vietnam, and my question to you is if the President is saying one thing, that John Kerry served admirably, why would you go to work for an outfit that so clearly contradicts the President's own message?"
Ginsberg: "Well I completely disagree with that characterization....Their point of view is that they have, they served with John Kerry and they wanted to get that view out. Now, the sort of premise behind your questions is that there's some sort of speech police out there that can judge who is allowed to give their point of view and who is not....And you seem to be insinuating that somehow they should not have a constitutional right to express that and I categorically reject that."
Bury: "I am insinuating no such thing. The question I am asking is how can a senior lawyer for the Bush campaign advise a group that has a message which is so clearly contradictory to what the President himself has repeatedly said?"
Ginsberg explained the vets just had a point of view and their small $500,000 ad buy brought on the wrath of the Kerry "smear machine."
Bury: "How does the viewer, the ordinary voter, avoid the impression that the Bush-Cheney campaign is trying to have it both ways? On the one hand, to have the President take the high road and on the other hand have one of his top lawyers advise a group which is clearly advertising attack ads against John Kerry, in language that the President chooses not to use?"
Ginsberg then pointed out: "Well, first of all, again, I reject that characterization, but I find it fascinating that you're saying that towards the Republicans, yet I believe you have never questioned the Democratic lawyers who are in the same position with the ads that their 527 groups have so far put out in this campaign."
[Some talking over each other]
But Bury insisted: "Hold on, Mr. Ginsberg. Jake Tapper in his report just laid out many of those ties, but the reason that we're addressing them–"
Ginsberg: "Yeah, and this was the first time and they've been running those ads since March, Chris. Where were you?"
Bury: "The reason that we're addressing them, the reason that it's being addressed is you're the one that chose to resign a few hours after your involvement in the campaign became public, and that's why we're talking about it here with you tonight."
Ginsberg: "That's right, I did feel I had to resign, because unfortunately and regrettably, the activities that I undertook, completely legal and proper, precisely the same as Kerry's lawyers did and the DNC lawyers did, was put under a different degree of scrutiny. And the President of the United States has a forward, positive agenda he wants to get out and sadly my activities were put in a light that it got in the way of that mission and so I felt I had to resign. Now, I think that's a double standard involved in this, and frankly the questions in this interview are indicative of that double standard."
Well said.
