As Brit Hume pointed out yesterday, no Bush official tried to avoid singling out the Swift Vets after Bush's criticism of 527 groups.  The story , meant to undercut Bush's comments, was INVENTED. The Ginsberg story is delicious —— since it is full of all the Democratic—527 links that the Times has never yet  chosen to put in a chart, as they have now down twice with their nefarious GOP links to the Swifties.

The imprortant news is on the Journal frotnpage. A GOP group raised 35 million in a few weeks to counter moveon.org, media fund, ACT, and others. More (tens of millions more ) will be raised during the GOP convention. The GOP groups hoped the FEC would shut the 527s down. They did not (mainly because of GOP members of the FEC, like Brad Smith, who do not believe in limiting political ads, just regulating them).

In any case, the GOP will NOT be outspent now. Also worth noting is where the ads from the new grousp are going— Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio, Missouri. Three of five are pickup opportunities, forcing Dems to play defense.  The shape of the race is slowly changing in a more favorable fashion for Bush.  Dems and kerry appear desperate in trying to respond to and shut down a measly $1 million in ad buys by 250 veterans.

Posted by Richard  8 25 04