WASHINGTON, Sept 14 (AFP) - US Democrats stepped up their attack Tuesday on President George W. Bush's military service, while a "tell-all" tabloid biography assailing his family values hit the stores as an instant bestseller.
"The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty," by Kitty Kelley, features a litany of reported family peccadillos, including a headline allegation that George W. Bush snorted cocaine at Camp David during his father's presidency.
The Democrats have been jabbing at Bush's character to counter the assaults on the Vietnam War record of their White House candidate, John Kerry, which have taken a toll seven weeks before the November 2 election.
On Tuesday, the Democrats came back with a new campaign and video aimed at highlighting "unanswered questions" regarding Bush's stint with the Texas Air National Guard three decades ago, a statement said.
The effort, dubbed "Operation: Fortunate Son," seeks to shift the focus onto what the Democrats call Bush's use of family connections to get a cushy National Guard position and avoid duty in Vietnam.
Democratic chairman Terry McAuliffe told a news conference that the president, who is currently leading in the polls, owes an explanation to the US troops serving in Iraq and elsewhere.
"As George W. Bush continues to rely heavily on the men and women serving in the armed forces today, thanks to his failed foreign policies, he has no business lying to them about fulfilling his own duty," McAuliffe said.
His remarks came shortly before Bush was to address the National Guard Association in Las Vegas, Nevada and tout his support for military personnel and their families. Kerry was to speak to the group on Thursday.
Both candidates have tried to tarnish each other's military records as part of the debate over who would be more fit to lead the United States through perilous times after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.
But the Democratic effort received a blow Tuesday with a new challenge to documents disclosed by CBS television last week that purportedly showed Bush using his political ties to escape some of his National Guard commitments.
The Washington Post quoted an expert used by CBS to authenticate the document as saying he confined himself to the signature at the bottom and did not look at other disputed aspects. CBS has stood by the story.
While Bush was to speak in Las Vegas, Kerry took his campaign to the key Midwestern state of Wisconsin, where he accused the Republican of short-changing elderly Americans on everything from pension security to health care.
"Seniors are getting squeezed like never before, but for big drug companies, these truly are the golden years," the Massachusetts senator said.
But much of the buzz Tuesday centered around the new book on the Bush family by Kelley, the dirt-dishing biographer who had previously set her sights on celebrities such as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Elizabeth Taylor.
Her 705-page work immediately went to the top of the Amazon.com bestseller list, with juicy allegations and heated denials filling up newspaper pages and the television airwaves.
Among the alleged revelations are that the president's grandfather went on alcoholic binges, that his father had an affair with an aide and that his wife, Laura Bush, was a "go-to girl" for marijuana while in college.
But the biggest fuss has been over a passage that quotes Sharon Bush, the former wife of the president's brother Neil, as saying that George W. Bush had snorted cocaine with a brother in Camp David while the elder George Bush was president.
The impact on the campaign was not known; Bush has made family values a pillar of his campaign but also makes no secret of weaknesses such as his battle with alcohol. But even before the book appeared, the White House reacted furiously.
"This gossip writer's allegations are false and so trashy that even the tabloids should cringe," a statement over the weekend said, calling the book's timing "politically motivated."
Sharon Bush also denied the report on cocaine use.