On the campaign front, a chief attorney for the Bush-Cheney campaign resigned yesterday less than 24 hours after it was revealed that he was also providing legal advice to a team of Vietnam veterans who claimed John Kerry has fabricated his war record. Benjamin Ginsberg’s resignation came as the Bush administration continued to charge it had no ties to the group known as the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Meanwhile Democrats yesterday released a new ad calling on Attorney General John Ashcroft to open a criminal investigation into illegal coordination between the Bush campaign and the veterans group. A manager of the Kerry-Edwards campaign responded by saying, “Now we know why George Bush refuses to specifically condemn these false ads. People deeply involved in his own campaign are behind them, from paying for them, to appearing in them, to providing legal advice, to coordinating a negative strategy to divert the public away from issues like jobs, health care and the mess in Iraq, the real concerns of the American people.” And former Senator Max Cleland, a triple amputee from wounds received in the Vietnam War, traveled to Crawford Texas and attempted to give President Bush a letter from nine senators calling on him to condemn the tv ads.