Posted on 08/23/2004 7:45:50 AM PDT by ConservativeMajority
WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- The Kerry campaign filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission Friday asking that ads being broadcast by the 527 group "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" be taken off the air. The Democrats allege that the Bush campaign is behind the political spots that question the version of events for which John Kerry received his medals during the four months he served in Vietnam. Coordination between independent "soft money" groups and political campaigns is illegal.
The ads have had a significant effect on Kerry's poll numbers among veterans. The Massachusetts Democrat has suffered a double-digit plunge in support among the key demographic since the Democratic National Convention where the presidential candidate announced that he was "reporting for duty."
The Kerry campaign released a television spot of its own over the weekend challenging President Bush to denounce the ads and demand that they be taken off the air. It repeats the Democrats' assertion that the ads are a part of a "smear campaign" being waged by the Bush campaign.
Steve Schmidt, a spokesman for Bush-Cheney '04 released a statement Friday that scoffed at the Kerry's campaign's complaint.
"This is a frivolous complaint that even John Kerry's chief strategist has said they have no evidence to support," Schmidt said. "Real coordination is what John Kerry's campaign has been engaged in with the Media Fund, America Coming Together, and MoveOn.org. The revolving door of personnel, coordinated strategies and overlapping fundraising between the Democrat 527s and the Kerry campaign is a flagrant disregard of the spirit and letter of the campaign finance reform law."
The White House continues its denials of being behind the ads.
"We've already said we weren't involved in any way in these ads," White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan told reporters on Friday. "We've made that clear. I do think that Senator Kerry losing his cool should not be an excuse for him to lash out at the President with false and baseless attacks."
McClellan chided the Democrats when he said, "Where has the Kerry campaign been for the last year while more than $62 million in funding through these shadowy groups has been used to negatively attack the president. The Kerry campaign has been noticeably silent, and in many instances, they have actually fueled these kinds of attacks by these shadowy groups that are funded by unregulated soft money."
McClellan elaborated on his assertion that the Kerry campaign was driving some of the attacks against President Bush.
He pointed out, "Just last week, the campaign held a news conference where General Clarke was repeating some of the same attacks used by some of these 527 groups."
McClellan said that he didn't want the White House to be drawn into the controversy.
"The president has made it very clear that he feels [Kerry's] service was noble," McClellan explained.
McClellan continued, "This ad is another example of the problem with these shadowy groups that are funded by unregulated soft money. And that's why the President has spoken out against this kind of advertising. The president thought he did that when he signed the bipartisan campaign finance reforms into law."
The press secretary repeated the call to the Kerry campaign to join with President Bush to call for an end to all of the ads being run by the 527 groups.
The Kerry campaign is also demanding that a publisher recall all copies of John O'Neill's book "Unfit for Command."
Kerry campaign spokesman Chad Clanton told Salon.com, "No publisher should want to be selling books with proven falsehoods in them, especially falsehoods that are meant to smear the military service of an American veteran."
He added, "If I were them, I'd be ducking under my desk wondering what to do...this is a serious problem."
The book's publisher, Regnery, did not comment on the Kerry campaign's threat of legal action when contacted by Talon News. Sources report that 550,000 copies are now in print.
O'Neill, a spokesman for SBVT, suggested that Kerry sue him for libel if what is contained in his book is found to be untrue.
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