"The president said if the court action doesn't work, that he would be willing to pursue legislative action with Sen. McCain on that," Bush spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to New Mexico...

..."I'm very appreciative of the president's effort to do that," McCain said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I want to emphasize if I could that we're not saying that 527s should be abolished. We're just saying they should live under the same campaign finance restrictions (as hard money groups) because they are engaged in partisan activity."...

...The Bush campaign and the GOP have filed complaints accusing the Kerry campaign of illegally coordinating millions of dollars worth of anti-Bush ads with soft-money groups on the Democratic side...

... The Kerry campaign filed its own complaint last week with the FEC, alleging that Swift Boat Veterans for Truth was illegally coordinating its efforts with the Bush-Cheney campaign.


All sides deny the allegations, and neither campaign has produced proof of coordination on the part of its rival.


McClellan said the goal is "to shut down all of this activity by these shadowy groups."

Mike Russell, a spokesman for the Swift Boat group, said Thursday that "we're going to continue doing what we're doing because this group is made up of more than 250 veterans who feel it is their obligation to tell the truth about John Kerry's military service."

"We're obviously going to abide by the spirit and letter of the law but as it sits right now 527s are free to operate and we're going to continue to do so," he said.