- CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters)
-- A top lawyer for President Bush's re-election campaign resigned on Wednesday
after disclosing he provided legal advice to a group that accuses Democratic
presidential candidate John Kerry of lying about his Vietnam War record.
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- Benjamin Ginsberg was the second person to quit the Bush
campaign over ties to the group, called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that
has been attacking Kerry's record through television commercials and a
book.
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- Dispatched by Kerry to defend his service, a group of
Vietnam veterans, including former Sen. Max Cleland of Georgia, was turned
away from Bush's secluded Crawford ranch on Wednesday when they attempted
to deliver a letter asking the president to condemn the Swift Boat ads.
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- The Bush campaign has insisted it has no relationship
with the Swift Boat group, and has denied Kerry's charge the president's
re-election team is using such "front groups." Bush on Monday
called for a stop to the ads, along with others run by independent groups,
but he did not condemn the group or its ads.
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- Campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel said Ginsberg, who served
as the Bush campaign's chief outside counsel for five years, informed the
campaign on Tuesday that he has been giving legal advice to the Swift Boat
group. The campaign released Ginsberg's letter of resignation to Bush in
which he defended his actions as legal and said he was proud to have advised
the veterans.
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- "I have decided to resign as national counsel to
your campaign to ensure that the giving of legal advice to decorated military
veterans, which was entirely within the boundaries of the law, doesn't
distract from the real issues upon which you and the country should be
focusing," he wrote.
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- The fierce dispute over Kerry's record in Vietnam, where
he was decorated for bravery, has dominated recent campaigning in the neck-and-neck
race for the Nov. 2 presidential election. Both candidates are trying to
portray themselves as the best man to lead the United States in its war
against terrorism.
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- KERRY RECORD
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- Federal election rules bar organizations that take unrestricted
donations from coordinating their activities with campaigns or political
parties.
-
- Stanzel said the law does not impose restrictions on
lawyers, adding: "There has been no coordination at any time"
between the campaign and the Swift Boat group.
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- Likewise, Mike Russell, spokesman for the Swift Boat
group, denied any coordination with the campaign. He said Ginsberg had
agreed to continue advising the group.
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- But Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill countered:
"The sudden resignation of Bush's top lawyer doesn't end the extensive
web of connections between George Bush and the group trying to smear John
Kerry's military record. In fact, it only confirms the extent of those
connections."
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- In his resignation letter, Ginsberg added that his work
for Swift Boat was "quite similar" to ties between lawyers affiliated
with the Kerry campaign and several left-leaning groups attacking Bush,
including Moveon.org, the Media Fund and Americans Coming Together.
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- The Massachusetts senator has called the Swift Boat ads
inaccurate and has asked the Federal Election Commission to force them
to be withdrawn. After the Swift Boat ads, support for Kerry among the
country's veterans declined, according to a CBS News poll.
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- As a Navy lieutenant commanding a gunboat in Vietnam,
Kerry was decorated five times for valor and sustaining combat wounds.
He has shrapnel in his leg from one of those wounds.
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- Records show the Swift Boat group received some of its
funding from long-time Bush supporters. Its new commercial also features
one veteran, Ken Cordier, who was on a Bush campaign committee until last
week, when he was forced to quit.
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