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Thursday, Aug. 26, 2004

"The president said if the court action doesn't work that he would be willing to pursue legislative action with Sen. McCain on that," Bush spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to New Mexico.

McCain, R-Ariz., has called on Bush to condemn the anti-Kerry ads, even as the war hero popular with many independent voters is actively supporting Bush's re-election. The senator welcomed Bush's gesture.

"I'm very appreciative of the president's effort to do that," McCain said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I want to emphasize if I could that we're not saying that 527s should be abolished. We're just saying they should live under the same campaign finance restrictions [as hard-money groups] because they are engaged in partisan activity."

McCain added: "I've said before I would like for the president to specifically condemn that ad, but the president has said John Kerry served honorably and also the president is now committed to acting to try to bring 527s into regulations that are appropriate."

Bush called McCain from Air Force One, and the two had a brief discussion about the matter, McClellan said.

The debate over Democrat nominee John Kerry's service in Vietnam has dominated the presidential race in recent weeks after the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth aired ads questioning Kerry's decorated record.

Bush has criticized the Swift Boat Veterans group's first commercial and all other outside group attack ads, many of which have targeted his own re-election. But he has not explicitly condemned the Swift Boat veterans' ad.

'FEC Had an Opportunity to Act'

McClellan said that complaints had been filed with the Federal Election Commission, including one by the Kerry campaign, which allows legal action if the agency doesn't act. The Bush-Cheney campaign would be the entity that would file such a lawsuit, but McClellan did not indicate when that might happen.

"There have been previous complaints filed," McClellan said. "The FEC had an opportunity to act. They did not act, so that allows those who filed those complaints to pursue action against the FEC."

Bush's campaign and the GOP have filed complaints accusing the Kerry campaign of illegally coordinating millions of dollars worth of anti-Bush ads with soft-money groups on the Democrat side.

The Kerry campaign filed its own complaint last week with the FEC alleging that Swift Boat Veterans for Truth was illegally coordinating its efforts with the Bush-Cheney campaign.

All sides deny the allegations, and neither campaign has produced proof of coordination on the part of its rival.

McClellan said the goal is "to shut down all of this activity by these shadowy groups."

"We want to pursue court action," he said.

'Obligation to Tell the Truth'

Mike Russell, a spokesman for the Swift Boat group, said Thursday that "we're going to continue doing what we're doing because this group is made up of more than 250 veterans who feel it is their obligation to tell the truth about John Kerry's military service."

"We're obviously going to abide by the spirit and letter of the law, but as it sits right now 527s are free to operate, and we're going to continue to do so," he said.

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