FORT LAWN, S.C. (AP) _ John McCain on Thursday demanded George W. Bush’s campaign stop making misleading phone calls to voters about him after a woman told the senator her 14-year-old son was brought to the brink of tears by a pollster.

The Texas governor denied his presidential campaign was behind such calls, and promised, ``If anyone in my campaign has done that, they’re going to be fired.″

On a day that Steve Forbes officially dropped out of the Republican race, Bush also offered fresh criticism of chief opponent McCain for transferring $2 million from his Senate campaign account to his presidential fund _ a practice Bush said he would work to end if president.

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Bush’s political team, meanwhile, continued its work to calm jittery Republican leaders. In a conference call Thursday with GOP supporters, campaign manager Joe Allbaugh said this week was intended to ``staunch the hemorrhaging″ caused by McCain’s New Hampshire win and he said campaign polls show that Bush’s more aggressive campaign against the Arizonan ``was having an effect.″

The conference call was private, but two officials who participated confirmed the events on condition of anonymity.

Looking ahead, Allbaugh said the campaign plans next week to describe McCain as a senator who never accomplished major legislative goals, one official said.

For the third day running, the two GOP contenders exchanged harsh words long distance in the battleground state of South Carolina, which holds its primary Feb. 19. A new American Research Group poll showed a tight race, 46 percent support for Bush and 39 percent for McCain.

This time, the two clashed over the practice of ``push polling,″ in which one campaign’s pollsters call voters and offer distorted appraisals of opponents’ positions.

At a town hall meeting in Spartanburg, Donna Duren told McCain that her 14-year-old son, Chris, took a call Wednesday from a ``push poller,″ although she couldn’t name the polling firm.

Duren said her son admires McCain and was on the verge of tears after talking to the pollster who described the candidate, in Duren’s words, as ``a cheat, a liar and a fraud.″

``I was so mad last night I couldn’t sleep,″ the woman said.

McCain said he would call the boy and he told the woman his campaign doesn’t conduct push polls. ``I promise you, I have never and will never have anything to do with that.″

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``I would hope people would contact the Bush campaign,″ McCain said. ``I can’t believe that someone from a good family such as George Bush wouldn’t stop this.″

The governor, campaigning in Fort Lawn, decried the incident and he called on McCain to join him in letting the public see the scripts they use to call possible supporters.

``It’s one thing to battle for the vote,″ Bush said as he arrived at the Catawba Fish Camp for a fish fry. ``But there is not authorization, and it’s not going to happen in my campaign, for calling him a liar. It’s just not right.″

Campaign spokesman Ari Fleischer released a script for what he said was the only call the Bush campaign was making. It criticizes McCain for ``negative campaign tactics,″ but it does not refer to his honesty and asks only one question, will you support Bush in the GOP presidential primary?

Calls are being placed to several hundred thousand people identified as favorable to Bush or undecided in the race.

Fleischer accused McCain of using the incident to divert attention from his fund-raiser Thursday night at a hotel across the street from the White House. The organizers included two lobbyists whose clients have interests before the Senate Commerce Committee.

McCain, who heads the committee, has decried the effect of special interests on the political process. Campaign funding reform is the hallmark of his presidential campaign.

In a new line of attack on McCain, Bush criticized the senator for transferring $2 million from his Senate campaign account to his presidential fund. And the governor noted that in a speech McCain made on the floor of the Senate in 1990 he said that rolling over money from one account to another was a practice used to ``intimidate″ challengers and amounted to ``hypocrisy″ among reformers.

``It’s one thing to say something, it’s another thing to do it in politics,″ Bush said. ``I want to make sure that people understand that a campaign funding reformer must be held to high standards.″

McCain spokesman Howard Opinsky said the senator was speaking in 1990 about the practice of Senate incumbents building warchests to scare off challengers.

``I don’t think that anyone is intimidated by John McCain’s fund-raising, and the Bush campaign continues to try to twist John McCain’s words to substantiate their special interest-funded campaign,″ Opinsky said.

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EDITOR’S NOTE _ Associated Press writer Leigh Strope contributed to this report.