Rove: Dems are Hypocrites on Funding
Politico reports:
Republican strategist Karl Rove charged on Sunday that President Barack Obama and other Democrats complaining about millions of dollars in undisclosed donations to GOP-friendly groups are guilty of hypocrisy.
"The president of the United States had no problem at all when Democrats did this," Rove said on CBS's "Face the Nation." "It was not a threat to Democrats when it helped get him elected."
"Liberal groups with 501-c-4's have been using undisclosed money for years and years and years and years," Rove said, referring to the tax code provision under which many of the groups are organized. "Once we copied what the liberals did, the liberals got upset....Suddenly, everybody’s gotten spun up about it this year."
In his TV appearance, Rove also wielded a copy of the disclosure report from AFSCME, a government employees' union that's expected to be the biggest outside spender in the 2010 election, and noted that the union doesn't disclose who funds its political program. (The money comes primarily from union dues, but individual union members are not listed in the reports.)
When showed a clip of himself from 2004 denouncing outside groups and suggesting they should be banned, Rove said he shouldn't be faulted for working under the same rules others are. "It is what it is. The choice is whether you fight the battle with one arm tied behind your back or not," said Rove, a former senior adviser to President George W. Bush.
Under questioning by CBS's Bob Schieffer, Rove repeatedly said he favored "a different system" for campaign finance, but he would not elaborate on what that should entail.
