Lawyer who advised veterans resigns from Bush campaign

The veterans group is challenging Kerry's Vietnam War decorations.
COMBINED DISPATCHES
WASHINGTON -- An election lawyer for President Bush who also has been advising a veterans group running TV ads against Democrat John Kerry resigned today from Bush's campaign.
"I cannot begin to express my sadness that my legal representations have become a distraction from the critical issues at hand in this election," Benjamin Ginsberg wrote in a resignation letter to Bush and released by the campaign.
"I feel I cannot let that continue, so 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."
On Tuesday, Ginsberg disclosed that he has been providing legal advice for a veterans group challenging Kerry's account of his Vietnam War service.
Ginsberg's acknowledgment marked the second time in days that someone associated with the Bush-Cheney campaign has been connected to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the group Kerry accuses of being a front for Bush's re-election effort.
The Bush campaign and the veterans group say there is no coordination.
Issue
The veterans group's advertisements casting doubt on Kerry's Vietnam War decorations have turned the senator's earning of a Silver Star, a Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts during four months of duty in Vietnam into a dominant election issue this month. The Kerry campaign has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission charging illegal coordination between the Bush campaign and the group, known as a 527.
The 527s are nonprofit political groups named for a section of the tax code that covers them. They may raise and spend unlimited amounts of unregulated, or "soft," money from individuals, businesses and unions to run issue ads in federal elections. But the law prohibits 527 groups from coordinating their activities with individual political campaigns or political parties.
Not improper
The type of work Ginsberg has done has not been deemed improper by Kerry's campaign. The law firm of Perkins Coie represents the Kerry campaign, and Robert Bauer, an election lawyer at the firm, represents the anti-Bush 527 group America Coming Together, which has been mobilizing voters for Kerry.
Ginsberg said that Joseph Sandler is a lawyer for both the Democratic National Committee and for the independent group MoveOn.org, which has run advertisements attacking Bush.
Bush said Monday he was opposed to all advertising by 527 groups -- most of which has favored Kerry -- but would not specifically condemn the Swift Boat veterans' advertisements.
In a letter Monday to the Federal Election Commission, Tom Josefiak, general counsel to the Bush-Cheney campaign, said Kerry's complaint is "frivolous" and "baselessly alleging illegal coordination" between the two groups. Josefiak said the "complaint should be promptly dismissed." The campaign also contacted stations that might air a Kerry ad alleging a smear to warn of possible libel.
The Kerry campaign jumped on Ginsberg's admission Tuesday night. "If the Bush campaign truly disapproved of this smear, their top lawyer wouldn't be involved with the Swift Boat veterans group," said Kerry campaign spokesman Chad Clanton.
Ginsberg said that a group of "decorated Vietnam War veterans came to me and said, 'We have an important point to get out in the debate under the First Amendment, the American right of free expression. ... Help us,' they said, and I did."
His relationship to the Swift Boat group was first reported by the Associated Press. In an interview, he said he did not participate in strategy planning or in the development of messages, and did not discuss Bush campaign activities with the Swift Boat veterans, or vice versa.
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