[Mb-civic] NYTimes.com Article: Bush Campaign' s Top Outside Lawyer Advised Veterans Group

[michael at intrafi.com]

The article below from NYTimes.com 
has been sent to you by michael at intrafi.com.



/--------- E-mail Sponsored by Fox Searchlight ------------\

 I HEART HUCKABEES - OPENING IN SELECT CITIES OCTOBER 1

 From David O. Russell, writer and director of THREE KINGS
 and FLIRTING WITH DISASTER comes an existential comedy
 starring Dustin Hoffman, Isabelle Hupert, Jude Law, Jason
 Schwartzman, Lily Tomlin, Mark Wahlberg and Naomi Watts.
 Watch the trailer now at:

 http://www.foxsearchlight.com/huckabees/index_nyt.html

\----------------------------------------------------------/


Bush Campaign's Top Outside Lawyer Advised Veterans Group

August 25, 2004
 By JIM RUTENBERG and KATE ZERNIKE 



 

The Bush campaign's top outside lawyer said Tuesday that he
had given legal advice to the group of veterans attacking
Senator John Kerry's Vietnam War record and antiwar
activism in a book, television commercials and countless
appearances on cable news programs. 

The lawyer, Benjamin L. Ginsberg, said that the group,
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, called him last month to ask
for his help and that he agreed. Mr. Ginsberg said that he
had yet to work out payment details with the group and that
he might consider doing the work pro bono. 

Mr. Ginsberg, the chief outside counsel to the Bush-Cheney
re-election effort, agreed to an interview after several
telephone calls to him and the campaign's asking that he
explain his role. He said that he was helping the group
comply with campaign finance rules and that his work was
entirely separate from his work for the president.
President Bush has called for an end to advertising by all
groups like that of the Swift boat veterans, called 527's
for the section of the tax code that created them. 

The campaign of Senator John Kerry shares a lawyer, Robert
Bauer, with America Coming Together, a liberal group that
is organizing a huge multimillion-dollar get-out-the-vote
drive that is far more ambitious than the Swift boat
group's activities. Mr. Ginsberg said his role was no
different from Mr. Bauer's. 

Mr. Bush's campaign aides have repeatedly said they have no
connection to the group, almost all of whose challenges to
Mr. Kerry and his war record have been contradicted by
official war records and even some of its members' own past
statements. 

Scott Stanzel, a Bush spokesman, said, "There has been no
coordination at any time between Bush-Cheney '04 and any
527." 

Mr. Ginsberg, a prominent elections lawyer, was a senior
lawyer for the Bush organization in the Florida recount
after the 2000 election and was once general counsel to the
Republican National Committee. He said he had no
involvement in the message or strategy of the Swift boat
group and said he had no reason to believe that Mr. Bush
knew of his involvement. 

"The truth is there are very few lawyers who work in this
area,'' Mr. Ginsberg said. "It's sort of natural that
people do come to the few of us for the work. What happened
was a month or so ago some decorated Vietnam vets came to
me and said: 'We have an important point of view to enter
into the debate. There's a new law that's complicated, and
we want help complying with the law.' " 

He added, "I have given them some legal compliance advice."


Mr. Kerry has gone on the offensive over the group's
activities, saying it is "a front" for Mr. Bush's campaign
and repeatedly calling on the president to repudiate an
advertisement from the group attacking his record. Senator
John McCain, the Arizona Republican who is also a decorated
war veteran, has also called on Mr. Bush to repudiate the
spots. 

The 527 groups are allowed to raise and spend unlimited
amounts of money as long as they do not coordinate their
activities with federal campaigns or political parties.
Campaign finance rules do not prohibit lawyers from working
for both outside groups and campaigns because they are not
considered strategists. 

Mr. Bush has declined to take on the group directly but
repeated this week that he believed that all outside groups
should stop advertising. 

Mr. Ginsberg had been at the forefront of pressing the
legal case against Democratic 527's, which have spent more
than $60 million on advertisements against Mr. Bush. 

In complaints against the groups, Republican lawyers have
noted that Harold M. Ickes, who has helped raise money for
and organize America Coming Together and the Media Fund,
both 527 groups, is also on the executive committee of the
Democratic National Committee. 

The chairman of the Democratic convention, Gov. Bill
Richardson of New Mexico, has been an adviser to another
527 group, the New Democrat Network. And Jim Jordan, a
spokesman for the Media Fund, was Mr. Kerry's campaign
manager until he resigned in November. 

Mr. Ginsberg said he decided to help Republican groups
after the Federal Election Commission declined to imposed
strict rules on the 527 groups in May. 

"At that point,'' he said, "I was more than happy to help
all Republican groups comply with the law so that there
wasn't unilateral disarmament." 

An occasional collaborator with Mr. Ginsberg, Chris
LaCivita, is also working for the group, advising on media
strategy. Mr. LaCivita was political director of the
National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2002 and now
works for the DCI Group, a Washington political strategy
firm whose partners include Charles Francis, a longtime
friend of President Bush from Texas and Tom Synhorst, an
adviser to the Bush campaign in 2000, who was an architect
of the campaign's effort in the Iowa caucuses. 

Mr. LaCivita said yesterday that he worked as a private
contractor for DCI and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and
that there was no coordination between the firm and the
group. 

"Obviously, I don't work for the Bush campaign," he said.


Mr. LaCivita described his role as providing advice on the
news media and placing advertisements. Asked to describe
how close his involvement was or how Mr. Ginsberg was
involved, Mr. LaCivita referred calls to a spokesman for
Swift Boat Veterans, which declined to comment. 

Mr. LaCivita and Mr. Ginsberg have also been involved with
Progress for America, a group that calls itself the leading
organization pushing a conservative agenda. Mr. Ginsberg
did not say how frequently he consulted with the group. 

This is the second time in recent days that an individual
associated with Mr. Bush's campaign has acknowledged
working with Swift Boat Veterans. On Sunday, the campaign
confirmed an accusation first made by Mr. Kerry's campaign
that Kenneth Cordier, a retired colonel who appears in the
second of two commercials by the group, had been a member
of the Bush campaign's veterans' advisory committee. The
campaign said that it had not known that Mr. Cordier, a
volunteer, was going to be in the spot and that he had
resigned as a result of it. 

Mr. Kerry's campaign filed a complaint last week with the
Federal Election Commission about collaboration between Mr.
Bush's campaign and the Swift Boat Veterans, activities
that would violate the laws for the 527's. 

Swift Boat Veterans portrays itself as an organic group
opposed to Mr. Kerry. Yesterday, the chairman of the
Federal Election Commission defended the group's right to
advertise. But it has gradually acknowledged ties to people
close to the Republican Party and Mr. Bush's campaign. 

"It's another piece of evidence of the ties between the
Bush campaign and this group," Chad Clanton, a spokesman
for Mr. Kerry, said. Asked about his campaign's use of
shared lawyers, Mr. Clanton said, "If the Bush campaign
truly disapproved of this smear, their top lawyer wouldn't
be involved.'' 

On Monday, the veterans' group acknowledged that a longtime
Republican operative, Susan Arceneaux, was working for it
and had taken out the post office box listed as the group's
address. The group described Ms. Arceneaux's role, also, as
"compliance." 

Records also list Ms. Arceneaux as treasurer of the
Majority Leader's Fund, a political action committee
affiliated with the former House majority leader, Dick
Armey of Texas, which like the Swift Boat Veterans received
significant financing from Bob Perry, a Texan who has long
supported Mr. Bush. 

Mr. Perry has given $200,000 to Swift Boat Veterans. He is
listed as co-host on an invitation to a fund-raiser next
week at the Tavern on the Green in Manhattan. The
invitation list includes President Bush's chief political
strategist, Karl Rove, The Dallas Morning News reported
yesterday. Mr. Rove has acknowledged through a spokesman to
being friends with Mr. Perry. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/25/politics/campaign/25swift.html?ex=1094469004&ei=1&en=21079d854bf446c8


---------------------------------

Get Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. Imagine
reading The New York Times any time & anywhere you like!
Leisurely catch up on events & expand your horizons. Enjoy
now for 50% off Home Delivery! Click here:

http://homedelivery.nytimes.com/HDS/SubscriptionT1.do?mode=SubscriptionT1&ExternalMediaCode=W24AF



HOW TO ADVERTISE
---------------------------------
For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters 
or other creative advertising opportunities with The 
New York Times on the Web, please contact
onlinesales at nytimes.com or visit our online media 
kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo

For general information about NYTimes.com, write to 
help at nytimes.com.  

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company