The beloved DAILY EGYPTIAN joined the rest of the so-called liberal media on Tuesday by buying into the Bush administration’s spin and running a headline saying that “Bush criticize[d] [an] anti-Kerry advertisement” being run by a morally corrupt front group for the Bush reappointment campaign.

The problem with the Bush did nothing of the sort.

The Associated Press story that accompanied the headline said nothing about Bush condemning the traitorous, misleading and dishonest ad’s content, because he continued to refuse to do so.

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In reality, Bush stuck to his tired line about how he opposes all ads funded by 527 groups, which by law are forbidden to coordinate with the campaigns themselves.

“I think they’re bad for the system,” Bush said, while calling for all 527 commercials, whether they present truthful information or not, to be banned from the airwaves. He did not address the fact that many of the ad’s allegations have been shown to be untrue and none of the men in the ad actually served with Kerry in Vietnam.

In effect, what Bush meant is that “We’ll stop lying about Kerry if he stops telling the truth about me.”

The ad in question, which is primarily funded by two of Bush’s long-time Texas money men, levels unfounded and untrue accusations against John Kerry’s heroic service in Vietnam, in an obvious attempt to distract voters from the current war, that is becoming more disastrous with each passing day, trying to eliminate Kerry’s enormous advantage in the all-important (according to Republicans) personal military service category.

Even Bush’s de facto running mate, Sen. John McCain, called on Bush to condemn the ad, saying it is “dishonoring not only John Kerry, it is dishonoring all veterans.”

And McCain knows of what he speaks. He witnessed first-hand the depths to which BushCorp. is willing to sink if it thinks a few votes may be affected. The Bush campaign spread similar rumors about McCain’s military service and his mental stability in the 2000 Republican Primary campaign.

Bush’s surrogates even spread false talking points about McCain fathering black children (in an attempt to win the lucrative Southern bigot vote) and opposing breast cancer research, even though McCain’s wife is a victim of the disease.

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Bush likes to pretend that his campaign has nothing to do with the group running the ads, which calls itself, ironically, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. But the facts show a much more pervasive “collaborative relationship” between the Bush campaign and the 527 group than has ever been shown between Iraq and al Qaeda.

Not only is most of the funding for the group coming from Texas businessmen with deep ties to the Bush family and Man Behind the Curtain Karl Rove, but local and state branches of the Republican Party have been promoting the group in fliers and on their websites, in an apparent violation of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law.

One of the men who didn’t serve with Kerry but said he did in the group’s commercial was even forced to resign from the Bush campaign when his relationship came to light. The Bush administration denied having any knowledge that the man appeared in the ad, which might be believable if Bush had one ounce of credibility left intact and the ads weren’t the number one political issue of the last couple weeks.

But leaving aside the fact that the group is made up of inveterate liars and Bush cronies, the ads may yet have a positive influence on the campaign.

By bringing Vietnam back to the forefront, voters can ignore the disastrous effects of Bush’s policies over the last four years and decide the election based upon what the candidates did 30 years ago.

Would voters prefer someone who volunteered to risk his life for his country, or someone who used his connections to avoid service and spent his days playing drunken volleyball with “ambitious secretaries” at the Chateaux Dijon apartments?

That is truly a tough decision.

Jesse is a senior in journalism. Divided We Stand appears every Wednesday. These views do not necessarily reflect those of the DAILY EGYPTIAN.