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Last night, the Democrats' claims that Bush used family connections to get into the Guard were buttressed by a "60 Minutes" interview with former Texas Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes.

Bush has denied that his father, who was a Texas congressman at the time, pulled strings to save him from going to Vietnam.

Barnes, a Democrat, said he was approached by the late Houston businessman Sidney Adger, a close friend of the Bush family, for help in getting Bush into the Guard.

"Oh, I would describe it as preferential treatment," Barnes said. " I'm not necessarily proud of that ... I thought that's what people should do when you're in office: You help rich people."

Earlier, a pro-Kerry group called Texans for Truth, unveiled a TV ad that questions Bush's attendance in the Alabama Air National Guard in 1972, after he transferred from Texas.

"I can't say he didn't do his duties, but I can say for sure I was there and I never met George Bush," says Bob Mintz, a lieutenant colonel in the 30-member unit when Bush was supposed to have been there. "You just can't come and go in a unit that small and not be noticed by someone."

Bush backers led by former Sen. Bob Dole fired back by unveiling a new anti-Kerry documentary called "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal."

In it, former Vietnam POWs Ken Courdier and Paul Galanti claim their captors used Kerry's anti-war statements against them. Courdier also appeared in the Swift Boat ads.

But in a Washington Post interview last month, ex-POW Phil Butler said Courdier and Galanti were "full of it." "We never heard a blooming thing about John Kerry while we were there," he said.