NYT, pg1: Kerry TV Ad Pins Veterans' Attack Firmly on Bush [View All]

Kerry TV Ad Pins Veterans' Attack Firmly on Bush
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and JIM RUTENBERG

Published: August 23, 2004


Senator John Kerry released a television advertisement yesterday blaming President Bush for a campaign by a "front group" of veterans that Mr. Kerry said had smeared his Vietnam record, as he intensified his drive to gain control in a fight that some Democrats said could undermine his campaign for the presidency.

Mr. Bush's campaign denied any involvement with the effort by the veterans challenging crucial parts of Mr. Kerry's war record and sent a letter to television station managers calling the new Kerry advertisement libelous.

But at the same time, Bob Dole, the Republican presidential candidate in 1996 and a World War II veteran, called on Mr. Kerry to apologize to Vietnam veterans in a television interview on CNN. He appeared to get behind some of the accusations raised by the group, when its most serious contentions have been undermined by official records and conflicting accounts....

***

The exchanges came as aides in both camps said the dispute over Mr. Kerry's war record was now at the center of the race in the week leading into Mr. Bush's nominating convention in New York City. And some Democrats close to Mr. Kerry said they feared that the very thing that had led the party to see him as its strongest challenger to Mr. Bush, his record as a decorated combat veteran in Vietnam, was now threatening to undermine his candidacy because of criticism raised by some former Vietnam veterans....

***

Mr. Kerry's advisers had originally planned not to spend any money on advertising in August, but shifted gears last week in the face of concern voiced by Democrats outside the campaign that Mr. Kerry was not moving aggressively enough to deal with this threat....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/23/politics/campaign/23swift.html