Kerry camp ties Bush to 'smear' by veterans

HOUSTON -- Senator John F. Kerry's campaign accused President Bush of running a "smear" campaign to taint his Vietnam service yesterday, intensifying an increasingly bitter battle over negative ads from a veterans group that the Bush campaign has so far refused to denounce.

In a new 30-second ad, titled "Issues," the Kerry campaign demands that Bush "denounce the smear," referring to charges by a largely conservative-funded group, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, that Kerry lied about his war service to win medals and enhance his stature as a hero.

"Get back to the issues," says the narrator of the ad, which the Kerry campaign plans to run in six states this week. "America deserves better."

The ad, part of a new effort by the Kerry campaign to rebut the veterans group after weeks of virtually ignoring it, marked an attempt by Democrats to take command of the issue and touched off a fresh debate over whether Bush should reject the specific content of the ad. Bush has declined to do so, instead broadly condemning all advertising funded by "527 groups," including the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, that operate independently from the campaigns.

Republicans are divided over how Bush should respond, with some officials fearful that his failure to condemn the ad keeps the president in a defensive stance and could reinforce allegations that Bush operatives are actively supporting the attacks on Kerry.

There is evidence that at least loose associations exist: A veteran who appeared in one of the ads, retired Air Force Colonel Ken Cordier, resigned over the weekend from his position on the Bush campaign's veterans steering committee after his dual roles were made public. In California, the Santa Clara County Republican Party included a posting from the Swift Boat group on its website.

One of the group's most generous donors, Houston real estate mogul Bob Perry, who has given $200,000 to help fund the attack ads, is also a major backer of Republican candidates and a longtime associate of Bush's senior political adviser, Karl Rove.

Nonetheless, the group's directors insist they are not formally coordinating their attacks with the Bush campaign, which would be illegal under campaign finance laws. Bush campaign officials said they did not know Cordier had appeared in the Swift Boat ad before it aired, and quickly removed him as a volunteer once they did. And one of the veterans involved dismissed the notion that Bush is playing a role in their cause or has the power to silence them. "Our message is our message, and no one tells us what to say," Van Odell, one of the veterans, said on "Fox News Sunday."

But on the same program, John Hurley, director of Veterans for John Kerry, described the effort as a "Republican smear campaign," echoing the growing cry from Democrats that Bush is defaming his rival by proxy -- just as they say Bush did to Senator John McCain during the 2000 Republican primary in South Carolina.

McCain -- a Vietnam veteran and former POW who suffered withering attacks from veterans associated with Bush in the last presidential race -- is among those who have asked Bush to refute the charges that Kerry exaggerated his combat valor and injuries.

Although McCain has endorsed Bush and plans to campaign aggressively with him leading into the Republican National Convention, he is also a centerpiece in Kerry's rebuttal to the veterans: in an Internet ad launched Saturday, the Kerry campaign showed footage of McCain during the 2000 Republican primary chastising Bush for failing to condemn attacks on McCain from a different group of veterans. And in the "Issues" television ad, the narrator states: "Bush smeared John McCain four years ago. Now, he's doing it to John Kerry."

The Kerry campaign initially planned to run the ad, along with another ad rebutting the veterans' group released last week, in the battleground states of Ohio, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. Upon learning that the Swift Boat Veterans plan to expand their advertising to Pennsylvania, Nevada, and New Mexico, a Kerry adviser said they, too, would move into those states, despite earlier hopes of staying off the airwaves until after the Republican convention in order to save money.

Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman yesterday released a letter to television station managers decrying the Kerry ad as "completely false and without any evidence," asking for the stations to "set the record straight."

At the root of the issue are two ads by the Swift Boat group: one charging Kerry with lying about his combat activities to win medals, the other criticizing his post-war protests, which infuriated many veterans who felt Kerry betrayed their service.

Both sides are planning to try to shift attention away from the controversy, in order to claim the mantle of "focusing on issues," this week. On Tuesday, Kerry is scheduled to deliver a speech in New York that tackles the substance of his agenda, a campaign official said, just as Bush officials say they will be rolling out elements of the president's second-term agenda, to be highlighted at the convention next week.

But with the ad war raging, fueling a closer examination of what both candidates did during the Vietnam era, neither campaign predicted a cease-fire.

Senator John Edwards, Kerry's running mate, seized on the subject during a campaign stop in North Carolina yesterday, saying that "Senator Kerry had a moment of truth in 1968 when he decided to volunteer and put his life on the line" in Vietnam.

"This is a moment of truth for President Bush," Edwards said. "The American people deserve to hear directly from the president of the United States that these ads should come off the air."

Bush, who has been secluded at his Texas ranch preparing for the convention, is likely to face questions on that subject today when he appears with military commanders at an event open to a small group of reporters.

Whether he will directly address the issue is uncertain, but Bush advisers gave no indication yesterday that they are about to change their message. Instead, they continued to praise Kerry's war record in general terms while asking Kerry to join them in calling for an end to negative ads funded by outsiders.

"This ad is another example of the campaign that is not talking about the issues we face," Mehlman said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "We have a president today that is working very hard to find solutions to our nation's problems and to lead our country forward."

Republican surrogates appear less inclined to let the matter drop. Former senator Bob Dole demanded yesterday that Kerry apologize for testifying after his service that US soldiers were "shooting civilians, cutting off their ears, cutting off their heads, throwing away his medals or his ribbons."

"Maybe he should apologize to all the other 2.5 million veterans who served," Dole said on CNN's "Late Edition." "He wasn't the only one in Vietnam."

At the same time, Dole, who was wounded in World War II, leaving him without the use of his right arm, said: "Here's, you know, a good guy, a good friend. I respect his record. But three Purple Hearts and never bled that I know of. I mean, they're all superficial wounds. Three Purple Hearts and you're out [of combat duty]."

That prompted an angry response from Democrats. "Today Senator Kerry carries shrapnel in his thigh, as distinct from President Bush, who carries two fillings in his teeth from his service in the Alabama National Guard, which seems to be the only time he showed up," John Podesta, former chief of staff to Bill Clinton, said on ABC's "This Week."

But despite the hammering from Democrats, Bush would speak out against the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth at his own political peril, according to Ted Sampley, one of the veterans who opposed McCain in 2000 and now opposes Kerry.

"There is no way President Bush or anyone else can stop what we're doing right now," Sampley said yesterday. "The Republicans should be very careful about that, because it can backfire. These veterans aren't going to stop."