WASHINGTON, Aug 25 (AFP) - A lawyer for President George W. Bush's re-election campaign who advised a group of veterans accusing Democratic challenger John Kerry in a television advertisement of embellishing his Vietnam War record announced his resignation Wednesday.
"I have decided to resign as national counsel to your campaign to ensure that the giving of legal advice to decorated military veterans, which was entirely within the boundaries of the law, doesn't distract from the real issues upon which you and the country should be focusing," Benjamin Ginsberg said in a letter released by Bush campaign officials.
Ginsberg, who played a key role in the president's re-election campaign, told The New York Times the group had enlisted his help in July to interpret new campaign finance laws.
In his letter to Bush, he said: "I am proud to have given legal advice to American military veterans and others who wish to add their views to the political debate." And he stressed that "it was done so in a manner that is fully appropriate and legal."
"I cannot begin to express my sadness that my legal representations have become a distraction from the critical issues at hand in this election," Ginsberg wrote, adding: "I feel I cannot let that continue."
In response, Kerry's campaign manager, Mary Beth Cahill, said in a statement, "the sudden resignation of Bush's top lawyer doesn't end the extensive web of connections between George Bush and the group trying to smear John Kerry's military record.
"In fact, it only confirms the extent of those connections. Now we know why George Bush refuses to specifically condemn these false ads," she said.
Bush's campaign chairman, former Montana governor Marc Racicot, said: "With sadness, we accept Ben Ginsberg's decision to resign from the campaign."
"For the past five years, he provided the president with first-rate campaign legal advice. There is no better legal mind in America on election law issues," Racicot said.
The campaign for the November 2 elections has been dominated for two weeks by accusations Republicans and Democrats made, each charging that the other lied about Kerry's record in the Vietnam War. The controversy has translated into huge success for the new book "Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry," which has been flying off bookstore shelves.
Bush called Monday for a stop to campaign ads by independent groups, including those targeting Kerry's war record, and praised his Democratic rival's service as a swift boat captain in Vietnam.
Until then, the president had declined to repudiate the ads, which the Kerry campaign claimed were orchestrated by Bush operatives and which allege that Kerry lied about some of the wounds and medals he received in Vietnam.
Kerry, for his part, charged Tuesday that "the Bush campaign and its allies have turned to the tactics of fear and smear because they can't talk about jobs, health care, energy independence and rebuilding our alliances -- the real issues that matter to the American people."