In response to Democratic demands that he denounce the Swift Boat Veterans' ads, Bush says that he thinks all ads by such organizations should be illegal

* In response to Democratic demands that he denounce the Swift Boat Veterans' ads, Bush says that he thinks all ads by such organizations should be illegal. Only the political parties and the candidates, which have to comply with detailed regulations, should be able to run campaign ads. Let us, as the president would say, review the bidding here.

First Bush beat John McCain in the 2000 primaries in part by scaring conservatives about the dangers of the campaign-finance legislation McCain was championing. Then, the weekend of his inauguration, he said that he had constitutional concerns about that legislation and would veto it if it reached his desk. A year later, he signed a substantially unaltered bill. This year, having noticed that the bill left organizations besides the parties mostly unregulated--and that Democrats had more of the George Soroses of the country behind them--Bush joined forces with McCain to get the Federal Election Commission to expand the scope of the bill ex post facto. Even Bush's staunchest supporters, if they look on this history without prejudice, must conclude that he is playing a cynical, and disgraceful, game with important constitutional freedoms.

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