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CBS/AP) President Bush on Monday called for an end to a TV ad campaign attacking John Kerry's war record and said all such political ads by outside groups should be stopped.
Mr. Bush said he doesn't think there ought to be any unregulated groups involved in the political discourse.
"That means that ad and every other ad," he said. "I think they're bad for the system."
He was referring specifically to an ad sponsored by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that said Kerry didn't deserve his Purple Hearts, lied to get his Bronze Star and Silver Star, wasn't fighting in neutral Cambodia as he said he was and that he unfairly branded all veterans with his 1971 congressional testimony about atrocities in Vietnam.
The president made his comments as the Kerry campaign fought back against charges made by an outside group that the Democratic senator had lied about wartime events in Vietnam for which he received five medals.
In a conference call with reporters arranged by aides to the Democratic presidential candidate, Navy swift boat officers Rich McCann, Jim Russell and Rich Baker said Kerry acted honorably and bravely and was well qualified to be the nation's commander in chief.
"He was the most aggressive officer in charge of swift boats," Baker said.
Additionally, crewmate Del Sandusky said at a news conference in Harrisburg, Pa., that he personally witnessed the battle action for which Kerry received Silver and Bronze stars and two of his three Purple Hearts.
"He deserved every one of his medals," Sandusky, a retired computer repairman who drove Kerry's boat for nearly three months.
Also Monday, the Kerry campaign released a new ad accusing Mr. Bush of directing the attack on Kerry through a "front" group. The ad claims it's the same kind of smear campaign Mr. Bush used against Sen. John McCain in the 2000 presidential race, when McCain's Vietnam War record came under attack.
"Bush smeared John McCain four years ago. Now, he's doing it to John Kerry," the announcer in the ad says. "George Bush: Denounce the smear. "Get back to the issues. America deserves better."
The attack on Kerry's war record has dominated the presidential campaign in the days since Swift Boat Veterans For Truth began airing its commercial in three states.
Mr. Bush's campaign heatedly denied any connection with the anti-Kerry group, and called on the Democratic challenger to join the president in a call for all outside groups to pull their ads.
Mr. Bush has himself been subjected to a multimillion-dollar barrage of attack ads aired by groups seeking to help Kerry win the White House.
Separately, former GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole, who was seriously wounded in World War II, joined the battle over the weekend. Dole said Kerry received an early exit from combat for "superficial wounds."
"One day he's saying that we were shooting civilians, cutting off their ears, cutting off their heads, throwing away his medals or his ribbons," Dole said on CNN's "Late Edition." "The next day he's standing there, 'I want to be president because I'm a Vietnam veteran.' Maybe he should apologize to all the other 2.5 million veterans who served. He wasn't the only one in Vietnam."
Kerry spokesman Chad Clanton replied: "It's unfortunate that Senator Dole is making statements that official U.S. Navy records prove false. This is partisan politics, not the truth."
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group funded in part by a top GOP donor in Texas, has been running ads featuring veterans who served in Vietnam at the same time as Kerry and question his wartime record.
At Kerry's urging, a Chicago Tribune editor who commanded one of the swift boats broke his silence, saying Kerry's accounts are accurate, and Kerry's critics' versions are wrong. The man steering Kerry's boat during a key incident also backs Kerry's account.
"The critics have taken pains to say they're not trying to cast doubts on the merit of what others did, but their version of events has splashed doubt on all of us," William Rood said in a 1,700-word first-person account published in Sunday's edition of the Tribune. "It's gotten harder and harder for those of us who were there to listen to accounts we know to be untrue, especially when they come from people who were not there."
Rood said the allegations that Kerry's accomplishments were overblown are untrue and that Kerry came up with an attack strategy that was praised by their superiors. According to the Tribune, Rood's recollection of what happened that day in South Vietnam was backed by military documents.
Kerry also picked up support from Wayne D. Langhofer, who told the Washington Post he was manning a machine gun in a boat behind Kerry's and saw firing from both banks of a river as Kerry dived in to rescue Special Forces soldier James Rassmann, the basis for Kerry's Bronze Star.
©MMIV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
