Adviser tied to anti-Kerry ads let go by Bush camp

CRAWFORD, Texas – The Bush campaign said late Saturday that it dismissed an adviser on veterans issues after learning that he is part of an independent group that has been running anti-Kerry ads.

The Bush campaign said Kenneth Cordier, who appears in a new advertisement to be aired by the anti-Kerry group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, will no longer serve in his voluntary position on Bush’s veterans steering committee. A Bush spokesman said Cordier had not previously informed the campaign that he had been involved with the group, but the Kerry campaign said the matter provides evidence supporting its complaint to the Federal Election Commission alleging illegal cooperation between the campaign and the independent group.

Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt wrote in a statement said Cordier “will no longer participate as a volunteer for Bush-Cheney ‘04.”

Cordier’s connection to the Bush campaign was made public by the Kerry campaign, which found that Cordier had been named on the Bush Web site earlier this month as a member of the veterans committee but that his name had subsequently been removed. A Bush aide said Cordier, who spent six years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam and was a Bush supporter in 2000, called the campaign to disclose his involvement on Friday and was told he could no longer serve as an adviser.

The ads by the Swift boat group, named for the type of boat Kerry commanded during the Vietnam War, caused a furious debate between the campaigns last week, with Kerry demanding that Bush condemn the ads, which suggest that Kerry did not earn his war decorations and that he betrayed his fellow veterans by his later antiwar activity. The Bush campaign has said it opposes ads by all outside groups but declined to specifically criticize the Swift boat ads.