Bush says he'll sue to curb outside adsPage 2 of 2 -- Bush disclosed the idea for the lawsuit in a telephone call from Air Force One to McCain, a move that also underscored Bush's political strategy against Kerry.
Both Bush and Kerry have sought to use their separate relationships with McCain to gain advantage in their race for the White House. McCain, the former Vietnam POW, called on Bush early this month to condemn the swift boat group. Yesterday, The New York Times reported that McCain planned to "express my displeasure" directly to the president -- delighting the Kerry camp, which has hoped that McCain would do its work in pressuring Bush on the veterans' group. But before McCain could, White House aides said, Bush made his case for the lawsuit by phone, asking McCain to team up with him on a broader, legal effort to regulate all of the 527s, as opposed to only singling out the swift boat coalition for criticism. And in another indication of how pivotal McCain is to both candidates, the Kerry campaign yesterday withdrew an ad that featured video of McCain, who ran against Bush in the 2000 Republican primary, chastising Bush for not condemning a veterans group critical of McCain. In a USA Today interview, McCain had expressed displeasure with Kerry's using the video. "We're going to honor John McCain's wishes and stop running that ad," said Kerry spokesman David Wade. "We hope George Bush will have the courage to listen to John McCain and finally condemn the smears and lies by his friends and allies attacking John Kerry's military record." Describing Bush's conversation with McCain, McClellan told reporters on a Bush campaign swing to New Mexico yesterday: "The president said he wanted to work together to pursue court action to shut down all the ads and activity by these shadowy 527 groups. And the president said if the court action doesn't work, then he would be willing to pursue legislative action and work with Senator McCain on that." While the precise exchange between McCain and Bush over the swift boat group is not known, the Republican senator told the Associated Press after the phone call that Bush was standing by his remarks of the last week, saying Kerry served honorably and criticizing all of the 527s without singling out the veterans' group. The Kerry campaign, which rarely criticized 527s until the veterans organized theirs to attack him, tried to shift attention away from legal action and back to Bush's views about the swift boat group's attacks on Kerry. "This isn't an issue about 527 ads or campaign finance; it's a question of whether the commander in chief will denounce a group whose claims have been discredited by eyewitness accounts, official naval records, and, in some cases, their own words," said Kerry campaign spokesman Phil Singer.
Patrick Healy can be reached at phealy@globe.com. © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
|
