From Holden:
Q Just going back to the Ginsberg question. You remember Mark Racicot said that there is absolutely nothing, nada, no connection whatsoever between the President’s reelection effort and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. How would you characterize today the relationship between the President’s reelection effort and the Swift Boat —
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, he’s the chairman of the campaign, and I think he characterized it very accurately.
Q Even though — given what we know about Mr. Ginsberg?
MR. McCLELLAN: I think what — again, let’s look at the double standing that — the double standard that has been emerging here. Let’s look at the revolving door between the Kerry campaign and these 527 groups that have been attacking the President for more than a year. It seems, in Senator Kerry’s mind, that there are those 527s that are aligned with him that are okay, and then there is those 527s that are opposed to him, which all of a sudden now he says they should stop their ads. So let’s have one standard. He should join us, condemn all these ads, and help put an end to it.
[snip]
Q So when you say it’s a double standard and a revolving door at the Kerry campaign, does that mean that it’s all right for Bush-Cheney campaign people to be involved in the 527s?
MR. McCLELLAN: Again, if you look at the — look at the revolving door. I encourage you to look at what the campaign has put out recently. The campaign showed the revolving door between personnel and strategists from the Kerry campaign and the 527 groups. The President has made it very clear that he condemns all of these ads, and he condemns all of this activity that is going on by these shadowy groups. And he has called for a stop to all of them, and he’s called on Senator Kerry to join him in calling for a stop to all of them. And I think you will see much more — you will see — if you look at the Kerry campaign, you will see that revolving door that really has not been reported at great length.
Q Is there any coordination between —
MR. McCLELLAN: No.
Q None?
MR. McCLELLAN: I think the campaign has made that very clear.
[snip]
Q Back to the double standard. Ben Ginsberg had been the National Counsel to the Bush campaign. What’s the apples to apples example of the Kerry campaign, of an official in the Kerry campaign connecting to a 527?
MR. McCLELLAN: The campaign has put out a lot of information on that, and you ought to get that — you ought to get that whole sheet of information — from the former campaign manager to campaign strategists that are involved in both campaign activity and involved in these 527 groups.
Q He’s a former — he’s a former campaign official. This is the national —
MR. McCLELLAN: I know. Like I said, there’s a —
Q This is the current national council.
MR. McCLELLAN: The campaign will be glad to give you all this information. They have a whole sheet of information. I’m not citing just that one example. There’s plenty more examples of the revolving door between the Kerry campaign and the 527 groups.
Q Is there any real apples to apples. You’re asserting there’s a double standard. Is there anything —
MR. McCLELLAN: Again, the campaign put out this information just the other day. Go and look — I don’t have that sheet right in front of me, but they — it was a lengthy sheet showing all the revolving door between the Kerry campaign and the 527s.
Go ahead, Pete.
*It’s Not A Double Standard If You Are A Republican.