First the Kerry campaign threatened to sue TV stations that aired the Swift Vets ads. That didn't work so they tried ignoring them. Now all of a sudden, they are demanding that the publisher pull their book "Unfit for Command". If the publisher doesn't agree, they are strongly suggesting that bookstores refuse to carry it (via Drudge):

The Kerry campaign calls on a publisher to ‘withdraw book’ written by group of veterans, claiming veterans are lying about Kerry’s service in Vietnam and operating as a front organization for Bush. Kerry campaign has told Salon.com that the publisher of UNFIT FOR COMMAND is ‘retailing a hoax’... ‘No publisher should want to be selling books with proven falsehoods in them,’ Kerry campaign spokesman Chad Clanton tells the online mag…

The book is not a hoax and is not full of falsehoods. The Kerry campaign can try and smear these veterans all they want but the fact is that some of what they claim in the book has already been proven to be true. All Kerry needs to do is release all of his remaining military records (not just cherry picked ones) and have a press conference and answer questions regarding these accusations. If these vets are a bunch of liars, it should be easy to prove that. The fact that Kerry resorts to legal threats and refuses to release his records just makes it look like he is hiding something. Trying to ban the book is a stupid idea. It is already a #1 bestseller on Amazon, this will just increase interest in the book. Captain Ed has some questions that he would ask Kerry at a press conference here.

Knowing that the book is not going to be pulled, the Kerry campaign then filed suit with the FEC saying the Swift Vets are illegally coordinating with the Bush campaign. In the suit they demand that the FEC pull the ads. Kerry is also calling for Bush to demand a stop to the ads every chance he gets. Of course the media is lapping all of this up rather than looking into the actual accusations of the book. Kerry knows damn well that Bush can't demand that the ads stop. First of all he is not linked to the group, but even if he could call for an end to the ads, Kerry would use that as "proof" that the the Bush campaign and the Swift Vets were illegally coordinating.

Of course Kerry has some big cajones making accusations of illegal coordination. Kerry has made no effort to reign in the much better funded 527's that attack Bush daily. Moveon.org even hosted a video on their website that compared Bush to Hitler and the Kerry campaign never said a word about it. Though Kerry and the media might want to play the Kevin Bacon game in connecting the vets to the Bush campaign, there are actual direct ties between Kerry and some of these groups. One top Moveon.org staffer Zack Exley, left the group to become Kerry's Internet Director, the same job he held at Moveon.org. This chart at Blogs for Bush shows the connections. Don't expect the media to publish this though, they are too busy going after the vets who only have only spent about $500,000 while ignoring all of the pro Kerry groups that have spent over $60 million.

So why is the Kerry campaign crying all of a sudden? Because the Swift Vets ads have been very effective (via Washington Times):

"During the week ending Aug. 8, 966,000 people visited the anti-Kerry group's Web site, 34,000 fewer than those who visited Kerry's official site, according to Nielsen/Net Ratings. The new CBS poll found Kerry winning 37 percent of veterans' votes to Bush's 55 percent. (The two were tied at 46 percent after last month's Democratic National Convention, where Kerry highlighted his service.)"

Now how do you think the media would have reacted if the Bush campaign had sued to prevent Fahrenheit 9/11 from being shown in theaters or demanded that publishers pull any of the many Bush-bashing books that are out there. They would be screaming that Bush was stripping our free speech rights and accusing him of book burning.

What does it say about Kerry that one little group attacks him with a book and some ads and he immediately tries to shut them down. Is he against free speech? These veterans earned the right to their free speech just as much as he did. The Bush campaign has been subjected to a barrage of negative books that have all been given full reviews on CBS's 60 Minutes Bush-bashing book of the month club. They have endured some of the most negative advertising I have ever seen and a full length movie that is full of lies. The director of that movie was even seen sitting with former President Carter at the DNC. They have put up with all of this without crying to Kerry to make it stop. Is this how Kerry would respond to an attack by Al Qaeda? Would he cry to the media and then threaten to sue them?

Tim Robbins liked to say there was a "chill wind blowing", implying that celebrities like himself were not being allowed to speak out against the war. Of course that was complete crap as we have heard celebrity after celebrity attack the president. They are now even organizing a Bush-bashing concert tour. I think we now see where that chill wind is actually blowing in from. Straight in from Kerry's campaign headquarters.

Update: Jay Tea at Wizbang has a similar post here.