E.J. Dionne has a piece attacking the Swift Boat guys. A few points:
1) He says unity in the war on terror is essential and “cheap-shot politics” doesn’t further that unity, therefore Bush has to denounce the ads. So, the Swift Boats guys are now underminding the war on terror! Hah! If Scott McClellan made an argument like this Dionne would accuse him of playing politics with the war on terror. Never mind that Dionne has not been especially vigilant in policing cheap-shots on the Left lately (it is also very debatable whether the Swift Boat ads are cheap shots in the first place).
2) Dionne obviously thinks the media has one duty here–discredit the Swift Boat guys. The possibility that on important questions they might be right–Cambodia, for instance–is not worth considering.
3) He writes “now that John Kerry’s life during his twenties has been put at the heart of this campaign just over two months from Election Day…” Now? Now? Like the Swift Boat guys are responsible for focusing on Vietnam? At least David Ignatius and David Broder, writing on the same page, are willing to admit that it is Kerry who put the focus on Vietnam, and thus invited scrutiny.
4) Dionne says Bush’s conduct during that time deserves equal scrutiny. Apparently he missed the media feeding frenzy about Bush’s National Guard service earleir this year. Also, Bush doesn’t have as much to lose from this as Dionne thinks, since he has never made large claims for himself during his 20’s, let alone based his campaign on it.