I am writing in response to Bob Mate's Aug. 30 column, "Dirty ads succeed in 2004." In his column, Mate addresses the issue of soft-money ads (527s), claiming that recent ads by the independent group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are illegally tied to President Bush's campaign.

Mate cites the fact that two members of the Bush campaign, "unpaid adviser Ken Cordier and legal adviser Benjamin Ginsberg," were connected to the ads. And as Mate points out, "when two like-minded groups share advisers, they look coordinated," which would be illegal. Yet, Mate and the majority of the liberally-biased media have ignored the overwhelming connections between Sen. John Kerry's (D-Mass.) campaign and liberal soft-money groups, choosing to hypocritically attack Bush instead.

Mate maintains the double-standard by further claiming that Bush is associated with the ads since "he's made it a point to say nothing about the ads." But Bush has said something about the ads. In denouncing all 527s Bush stated in reference to the Swift Boat ads, "that means that ad and every ad like it."

He has repeatedly called Kerry's service "honorable" and "heroic." Yet, Kerry ironically accuses Bush of running a smear campaign despite his kind words, despite the fact Bush has never questioned Kerry's service and despite the fact that Kerry has unfairly criticized Bush's own military service. Kerry is the one running the smear campaign.

As usual, Democrats and the liberal media are blind to their own cynicism, crying foul over the $1.2 million spent on the Swift Boat ads. Mate claims that the ads are part of the Bush campaign's strategy "to sit back at a safe distance" and benefit from them. But Mate ignores the fact that Kerry has benefited from over $62 million in soft money ads that have been attacking Bush since March.

These ads are nothing but libel and slander, some shamefully comparing Bush to Hitler — something that should disgust any liberal. Yet Kerry refuses, unlike Bush, to condemn all 527s. Why? Because he benefits from liberal ads that slander Bush at a ratio 14 times greater than conservative ads attack him. Sure, Kerry has denounced a few, but only the most despicable; and until he condemns them all he is not in the position to accuse the Bush campaign of associating with the Swift Vote Veterans. Democrats have also conveniently forgotten how Kerry benefited from soft-money attack ads that slandered former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean in the primaries.

Democrats instead point out that a Bush supporter has given $200,000 to the Swift Boat Veterans, but they choose to ignore that a Kerry supporter, George Soros, has personally given over $12 million to several liberal attack groups, including MoveOn.org. Or they will point out, as Mate did, that the Bush campaign's legal adviser Ginsberg was associated with the Swift Boat group — never mind that Joe Sandler, a lawyer for both the DNC and MoveOn.org, said there is nothing wrong with serving in both roles at once, which he does without criticism from the right. Instead, they choose to ignore the numerous and illegal, according to Mate's logic, connections between Kerry's campaign and liberal attack groups.

I'll help them remember a few. According to an Aug. 26 Washington Post article by Dan Balz and Thomas B. Edsall, "Lawyer Quits Bush-Cheney Organization," the following people have overlapping ties between Kerry's Campaign and soft-money liberal attack groups: Harold Ickes, a DNC executive board member; former Kerry campaign manager Jim Jordan; Kerry's online communication director Zack Exley; and Kerry's media consultant Bill Knapp.

Yes, the Swift Boat ads are hurting Kerry in the polls, but if he switches the focus back to the real issues and his poor Senate record he would see his numbers drop even faster. I have grown tired of Kerry's hypocrisy. He failed to do anything noteworthy in his 20 years in the Senate, and Kerry has flip-flopped enough times this election that it wouldn't surprise me if he became a Bush supporter by October.

Seebruck is a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences.

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