Coming right on the heels of the last post comes the announcement that Ben Ginsberg is resigning as President Bush's top outside legal counsel. Taking the medicine (after the fact, anyway) that he prescribed for the Democrats:
Ben Ginsberg, a legal adviser to the Bush campaign, specifically condemned the dual roles played by Democrats Harold Ickes and Bill Richardson, who had official roles at the convention and also within prominent friendly 527s. "They're over the coordination line," Ginsberg said of Ickes and Richardson. "The whole notion of cutting off links between public officeholders and soft-money groups just got exploded."He said that before he gave counsel to SBVT but while he acted simultaneously as chief counsel for Progress for America, a shadowy conservative 527 organization, and President Bush. So sorry to see him go!
UPDATE: JSB in comments offers a counter that I meant to anticipate in this post: Kerry hired MoveOn PAC creative director, Zach Exley. I've heard it all before. To wit:
A MoveOn statement said Exley and the staff of all MoveOn entities have agreed that they will not be in contact through the election period to avoid the appearance of coordination, "even though federal election rules permit some forms of communication."Let me one more time submit that the MoveOn/SBVT equivalency is totally bogus. MoveOn PAC—created in 1998 to butress Clinton against Contract With America. SBVT—created 15 minutes ago to smear John Kerry. Kerry and MoveOn—both predict that hire could be seen as evidence of dubiousness; both issue press releases and severe all ties. Bush and SBVT—obfuscate connections; open secrets are exposed and resignations follow. So the Exley business doesn't matter except inasmuch as it is serves as an illustration of the right way to go about your business and, moreover, is a feint. Posted by Kriston at August 25, 2004 12:44 PM
When will Zack Exley resign from the Kerry campaign?
Posted by: j.scott barnard at August 25, 2004 1:54 PM"MoveOn PAC—created in 1998 to butress Clinton..."
As you so famously have said, "Clinton is not running for re-election." To deny the obvious coordination between these anti-bush groups, to conveniently forget the viciousness of their "AWOL" claims, is just plain old cynical on your part. But your cynicism is highly entertaining, don't get me wrong. On the other hand, somehow you haven't managed to get the shrillness meter up too much and I'm proud of you for that level-headedness. --s
Posted by: j.scott barnard at August 26, 2004 10:11 AMKriston, for you:
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.It does indeed seem there's coordination going on!! OMG! What will we do? Seems you didn't "anticipate" that with this post.
(http://nytimes.com/2004/08/25/politics/campaign/25swift.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position=)
Posted by: j.scott barnard at August 26, 2004 12:50 PMi haven't heard of this group, but how is "getting out the vote" worse than smearing a vet's service?
Posted by: catherine at August 26, 2004 1:37 PMCatherine, it's the "coordination" that Kriston and others have been howling about and claiming there's none on the Democratic side...that's the point of, er, pointing that out.
Posted by: j.scott barnard at August 27, 2004 8:47 AMAnd there not just getting out the vote, it's a partisan effort.
Posted by: j.scott barnard at August 27, 2004 8:47 AMKriston, don't you think this means that "open secrets are exposed" now in the Kerry/ACT connection? I mean, Bauer's connections kind of destroy the whole premise of this post, no?
Posted by: j.scott barnard at August 27, 2004 8:51 AMSorry for the extra, extra comments. But I just noticed Brian Balta is calling on supporters to ask Kerry to have Bauer step down. Thought you might want to contribute to the effort. Peace.
(http://balta.blogspot.com/2004_08_01_balta_archive.html#109355345018639001)
--s
