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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Question: Why doesn't Kerry sue O'Neill and the
vets? Why go after Bush? Is he afraid to have all this in court? O'Neill has
been at Kerry since his days of carrying the Vietnam flag and his
conversation with Cavett. But, Kerry has never been able to silence him, so he
goes after Bush. Bush has declared all the so called 5/27 ads bad for the
election and that would include the ones 'approved' by the DNC about Bush. Like
I have said before Kerry's or Bush's Vietnam record does affect me one way or
the other because we all make choices at various times in our lives. I must
admit that even then Kerry running around with the Vietnam flag bothered me and
I sure wouldn't vote for someone like him. But, that has little to do with all
this Vietnam stuff. It is silly at this time of history.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>PK</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>Cheney Lawyer Tiedto Swift Boat Vets</DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face="Verdana Ref" size=4><A
href="http://www.foxnews.com/index.html"></A><FONT size=3> </FONT>
<P class=headlineblack><FONT size=6><STRONG>Bush-Cheney Lawyer Tied to Swift
Boat Vets</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P>Tuesday, August 24, 2004</P>
<P>Associated Press via Fox News</P>
<P>WASHINGTON A lawyer for President Bush's re-election campaign
disclosed Tuesday that he has been providing legal advice for a veterans group
that is challenging Democratic Sen. <STRONG>John Kerry</STRONG>'s (<A
href="http://search.foxnews.com/info.foxnws/redirs_all.htm?pgtarg=wbsdogpile&qcat=web&qkw=John%20Kerry"
target=_blank>search</A>) account of his Vietnam War service.</P>
<P><STRONG>Benjamin Ginsberg</STRONG>'s (<A
href="http://search.foxnews.com/info.foxnws/redirs_all.htm?pgtarg=wbsdogpile&qcat=web&qkw=Benjamin%20Ginsberg"
target=_blank>search</A>) acknowledgment marks the second time in days
that an individual associated with the Bush-Cheney campaign has been connected
to the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which Kerry accuses of being a
front for the Republican incumbent's re-election effort.</P>
<P>The Bush campaign and the veterans' group say there is no coordination.</P>
<P>The group "came to me and said, 'We have a point of view we want to get
into the First Amendment debate right now. There's a new law. It's very
complicated. We want to comply with the law, will you keep us in the bounds of
the law?"' Ginsberg said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I said
yes, absolutely, as I would do for anyone."</P>
<P>Ginsberg said he never told the Bush campaign what he discussed with the
group, or vice versa, and doesn't advise the group on ad strategies.</P>
<P>"They have legal questions and when they have legal questions I answer
them," Ginsberg said. He said he had not yet decided whether to charge the
Swift Boat Veterans a fee for his work.</P>
<P>Kerry's presidential campaign last week filed a complaint with the Federal
Election Commission accusing the Bush campaign and the <B>Swift Boat
Veterans for Truth</B> (<A
href="http://search.foxnews.com/info.foxnws/redirs_all.htm?pgtarg=wbsdogpile&qcat=web&qkw=Swift%20Boat%20Veterans%20for%20Truth"
target=_blank>search</A>) of illegally coordinating the group's ads. The
ads allege Kerry has lied about his decorated Vietnam War service; the group's
accounts in a television ad have been disputed by Navy records and veterans
who served on Kerry's boat.</P>
<P>"It's another piece of the mounting evidence of the ties between the Bush
campaign and this group," Kerry campaign spokesman Chad Clanton said of
Ginsberg's admission. "The longer President Bush waits to specifically condemn
this smear, the more it looks like his campaign is behind it."</P>
<P>On Saturday, retired Air Force Col. Ken Cordier resigned as a member of the
Bush campaign's veterans' steering committee after it was learned that he
appeared in the Swift Boat veterans' commercial.</P>
<P>The Bush campaign, responding to Ginsberg, again denied involvement with
the veterans group's ads.</P>
<P>"There has been no coordination at any time," said campaign spokesman Scott
Stanzel.</P>
<P>Kerry, meanwhile, is the subject of complaints by the Bush campaign and the
Republican National Committee accusing his campaign of illegally coordinating
anti-Bush ads with soft-money groups on the Democratic side, allegations he
and the groups deny.</P>
<P>Ginsberg also represented the Bush campaign in 2000 and became a prominent
figure during the Florida recount.</P>
<P>He also served as counsel to the RNC in its unsuccessful lawsuit seeking to
overturn the nation's campaign finance law, which banned the national party
committees from collecting corporate, union and unlimited donations known as
soft money and imposed stricter rules on coordination involving parties,
candidates and interest groups.</P>
<P>Ginsberg contends that by offering legal advice to both the Bush campaign
and the Swift Boat group, he has done nothing different than other election
lawyers in Washington, including attorneys for Kerry and the Democratic
National Committee who have also advised soft-money groups. Representing
campaigns, parties and outside groups simultaneously is legal and allowed
under the law and by the FEC, he said.</P>
<P>"The truth is there is only a handful of lawyers who live and breathe this
law. And so because the coordination rules do not include legal services among
the prohibited coordinated activities, we provide legal service," Ginsberg
said.</P>
<P>Larry Noble, head of the nonpartisan <B>Center for Responsive
Politics</B> (<A
href="http://search.foxnews.com/info.foxnws/redirs_all.htm?pgtarg=wbsdogpile&qcat=web&qkw=Center%20for%20Responsive%20Politics"
target=_blank>search</A>) campaign watchdog group and former FEC general
counsel, said it's true that serving as a lawyer for both a campaign and a
soft-money group isn't considered automatic evidence of coordination under
commission rules, but added that it doesn't mean the FEC won't look at it.</P>
<P>"I think there's a valid question about when you're talking about strictly
legal advice and when you're talking about policy issues and strategic
issues," Noble said. "It's fair to ask what the advice is about."</P>
<P>Joe Sandler, a lawyer for the DNC and a group running anti-Bush ads,
MoveOn.org, said there is nothing wrong with serving in both roles at
once.</P>
<P>In addition to the FEC's coordination rules, attorneys are ethically bound
to maintain attorney-client confidentiality, Sandler said. They could lose
their law license if they violate that, he said.</P></FONT></DIV>
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