DOWNLOADS: (124)

PLAYS: (1836)

Embed

Conservative Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol is lashing out at Karl Rove and his American Crossroads super PAC for using last year's attacks in Benghazi to attack former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ahead of the 2016 presidential race.

During a Fox News panel segment on Sunday, Kristol complained that there had been a "partisan reaction" to both the attacks in Benghazi and the news that the Internal Revenue Service had targeted tea party groups to find out if they had violated their tax exempt status.

Kristol pointed to a web video released by American Crossroads last week that attacked Clinton for allegedly participating in a Benghazi "cover up."

"I do not like the conservative Republican groups putting ads up about Hillary Clinton," he said. "What is the point of that? That is just fundraising by American Crossroads and these other groups. It's ridiculous! There's no campaign going on!"

"Let's pull the partisanship back. It's a genuine outrage what happened in Benghazi, it's a genuine outrage what the IRS did... So I wish the Republicans would just be quiet for while -- I mean, the partisan Republican groups that are fundraising off this -- would be quiet on both issues for a while, and let's find out what really happened."

DOWNLOADS: (180)

PLAYS: (3173)

Embed

Conservative strategist Karl Rove on Sunday lashed out at former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) after she used her speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) to blast his super PAC for "vetting our candidates."

Following major losses in the 2012 elections, Rove launched the Conservative Victory Project to pick conservative candidates who could win -- instead of fringe tea party favorites like former Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO), who said that women could not get pregnant from "legitimate rape."

On Saturday, Palin took to the podium at CPAC and called Rove's effort the "last thing we need."

"The architects can head on back to the great Lone Star state and put their names on some ballot," she said.

In an appearance on Fox News Sunday, it was clear that Palin had gotten under Rove's skin because he took a shot at her for quitting halfway through her first term as Alaska governor.

"I have to set the record straight," Rove told Fox News host Chris Wallace. "I'm a volunteer. I don't take a dime for my work with [super PAC] American Crossroads. I even pay my own travel expenses out of my own pocket. I thought Sarah Palin was about encouraging grassroots volunteer activity, I'm a volunteer."

"Second of all, look, I appreciate her encouragement that I ought to go home to run for office," he continued. "I would be enthused if I ran for office to have her support."

"I would say this, though. I don't think I'm a particularly good candidate, sort of a balding, fat guy. And second of all, I'd say if I did run for office and win, I'd serve out my term, I wouldn't leave office midterm."

It should be noted that Rove did leave his unelected office before the end of President Bush's term.

DOWNLOADS: (241)

PLAYS: (3183)

Embed

Author Bob Woodward on Sunday blasted Republican strategist Karl Rove for creating a super PAC that acts as a Soviet-style "Politburo" with the de facto power to decide Republican primaries.

During a panel segment on Fox News Sunday, Rove insisted that he had founded the Conservative Victory Project super PAC to "avoid having stupid candidates who can't win general elections... because this money is too difficult to raise to be spending it on behalf of candidates who have little chance of winning in general elections."

Also appearing on the panel, Woodward seemed shocked that Rove was still successful in courting Republican donors after his American Crossroads super PAC got only only a 1 percent return on $103 million in spending during 2012 election.

"My last book is going to be called 'Some People Never Go Away' and Karl's going to get his own chapter because he never goes away," Woodward snarked. "Maybe two chapters because you never know what the next bounce will be with you."

"But what's interesting is the focus on money," he conintued. "I think the problem in the Republican Party is really not money. I think they've got lots of it. I think it is theory of the case, 'Why are we here? What is our message? How to connect to the real world?' And this idea about $30 million [in campaign spending] here or we're going to do that, I think is the wrong track."

"A lot of this is just examining these candidates, looking at their record, doing the kind of research on ourselves that the other side is already going to be doing and trying to have discussions behind the scenes among conservative groups as to how strong are these respective candidates," Rove explained.

Woodward interrupted: "But you're going to set yourself up as a kind of Politburo vetting these candidates. I mean, the whole theory of Republicanism is to let the local, state or district decide."

"We believe in markets," Rove replied. "It's just the opposite of the Politburo. The more people that participate, the better off we are. The more we examine the quality of these candidates from top to bottom, the more likely we end up with fewer Christine O'Donnells and more Rand Pauls."

DOWNLOADS: (309)

PLAYS: (1507)

Embed

Karl Rove was back on Fox again this Thursday, still making excuses for blowing through all of those billionaires' money and with a major dose of projection when it comes to which party believes in voter suppression -- Karl Rove: Obama Won 'By Suppressing The Vote' :

Mitt Romney lost the election because President Barack Obama engaged in voter suppression, according to Republican political strategist Karl Rove.

"He succeeded by suppressing the vote," Rove said in an interview on Fox News with anchor Megyn Kelly on Thursday afternoon, "by saying to people, 'You may not like who I am and I know you can't bring yourself to vote for me, but I'm going to paint this other guy as simply a rich guy who only cares about himself.'"

Rove didn't actually give any examples of ways in which Obama made it harder for people to exercise their constitutional right at the polls -- things like voter ID laws, which have been pushed by GOP legislatures around the country. In fact, Obama specifically said in his victory speech that it was unfair that people had to wait in line for hours to vote, which occurred in part because Republicans reduced the time period for early voting.

Rove did say that Obama had aired attack ads and painted Romney as out-of-touch with the concerns of ordinary voters, but these are fairly common tactics in politics, and Rove is certainly no stranger to them.

"Fifty-three percent in the exit polls said on Election Day that Mitt Romney's policies would only help the rich. And they voted for Obama by a 9 to 1 margin," added Rove. "Of the 21 percent of the electorate who said that the most important characteristic in a president was that he cares about people like me, they voted for President Obama by almost a 9 to 1 margin. They effectively denigrated Mitt Romney's character, business acumen, business experience and made him unworthy."

Kelly then pointed out that whoever runs in 2016 on the Democratic ticket is not likely to go any easier on Republicans. Rove replied that the GOP needed to be quicker to responding to attacks, saying the Romney campaign did not do so effectively enough.

"The first group to respond to the attacks on Bain Capital was not the Romney campaign, it was American Crossroads with an ad in July. We don't do defense all that well," said Rove, saying it was sometimes more effective to have the candidate appear in an ad and respond directly to the charges being leveled.

Someone needs to explain the difference to Turdblossom between voter suppression and running a good campaign.

DOWNLOADS: (324)

PLAYS: (2024)

Embed

Rachel Maddow went after Karl Rove for his bizarre appearance on Fox News last week where, when asked about the complaint filed against his so-called "advocacy group," Crossroads GPS, Rove went off on a tangent and started ranting about Bob Bauer, the lawyer who filed the complaint. Rove claimed that Bauer represented the whistle blower Dana Jill Simpson in the Don Siegelman case, which as Maddow noted, is not true, and has nothing to do with the type of ads his group is running and whether they're violating the law.

Chris Matthews did a segment on Rove's group with Dan Froomkin and Joe Conason last month where they were looking at whether the IRS might go after Rove's group for the abuse of their tax status.

The Huffington Post has more on the dust up between Rove and the Obama campaign's attorney here: Bob Bauer, Obama Campaign's Top Lawyer, Demands Retraction From Karl Rove:

The Obama campaign's top lawyer fired off a letter to Karl Rove Thursday, demanding a retraction of a "mystifying" comment Rove made and raising questions about his upcoming appearance at a Mitt Romney campaign event.

The letter is the second that Bob Bauer has sent to Rove this week. The first argued that Rove could no longer insist that his advocacy group, Crossroads GPS, was policy oriented -- a distinction that allowed it to shield the names of its donors. The follow-up letter, obtained by The Huffington Post, makes that same point, arguing that there is no "social welfare" component to the group's operations.

But it also challenges Rove in more direct terms. Bauer hints that Rove, the chief strategist to former President George W. Bush, is colluding with Romney, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, by homing in on Rove's presence at a Romney retreat in Utah this upcoming weekend. He also expands the scope of his complaint to Rove's role with American Crossroads, the super PAC arm of Crossroads GPS. [...]

The letter also picks up on an exchange between the two that was escalated Wednesday night when Rove accused Bauer of having a political vendetta against him that was rooted in earlier legal conflict.

In an appearance on Fox News, Rove insisted that Bauer had represented Dana Jill Simpson, the former Republican operative in Alabama who served as a whistleblower against Rove and others in the case of former Gov. Don Siegelman.

"This is the kind of guy Bob Bauer is," Rove told Fox News host Greta Van Susteren. "I know what he’s doing. It is not going to change us in one way shape or form from doing exactly what we’re entitled to do under the law."

But it turns out that Bauer never represented Simpson. Nor, he wrote in the Thursday letter, did he have "anything at all to do with her allegations about you or any appearance by her on 60 Minutes."

"The identity of her lawyer is a matter of public record – a lawyer I have also never met," Bauer added. "Please promptly correct these remarks on the record." Read on...

DOWNLOADS: (324)

PLAYS: (2407)

Embed

On this Tuesday's Hardball, Chris Matthews spoke to The Huffington Post's Dan Froomkin and National Memo's Joe Conason about Karl Rove's group, Crossroads GPS and their potential violations of FEC rules and their more obvious violations of the stricter IRS rules on how anyone claiming 501(c)(4) privileged tax status is allowed to spend their money.

Froomkin wrote about this in his article at The Huffington Post: IRS To Take On Karl Rove? Tax Laws Could Take A Bite Out Of Secret Political Spending :

Top Republican political strategist Karl Rove's method of secretly funneling unlimited contributions from big donors was so hugely successful in the 2010 campaign that Democrats are now trying to copy it. But his model may yet end up backfiring spectacularly.

In one scenario, groups like Rove's Crossroads Grassroots Political Strategies could find themselves subject to massive fines, ranging as high as 35 to 70 percent of the money they received in secret donations.

In another scenario, their deep-pocket donors could be hit by a 35 percent tax on their contributions.

Rove may well have found a way around the nation's federal election laws. But now the key question is whether the Internal Revenue Service is willing to be assertive. Because if it is, then just like with Al Capone, it could be the IRS that gets him.

In Crossroads GPS's solicitations for money, the group describes itself as a tax-exempt 501(c)(4) organization, and due to a controversial loophole in federal campaign finance rules, the names of donors to those organizations do not have to be disclosed publicly.

But contrary to popular belief, Rove's group has not formally attained 501(c)(4) status. The group's application, requesting the IRS to classify it as a "social welfare" group, is still pending.

And while the designation is typically not much more than a formality -- organizations routinely call themselves (c)(4) groups before they've been formally approved -- tax and campaign finance experts contacted by The Huffington Post said the IRS could well deny Crossroads GPS's application. Read on...

Here's a press release from The Campaign Legal Center on the matter as well: April 17, 2012 - IRS Urged to Curb Crossroads GPS Abuse of Tax Status in Wake of Secret $10 million Contribution to Run Attack Ads:

In a letter sent to the IRS today, Democracy 21 and the Campaign Legal Center again called on the agency to investigate and take appropriate enforcement action against Crossroads GPS for its apparent misuse of a privileged tax status. The letter specifically calls attention to a secret $10 million dollar contribution to the 501(c)(4) group to run attack ads that The Washington Post recently brought to light.

Political operatives are increasingly turning to the 501(c)(4) tax status to hide their donors from the public despite the fact that they are not “social welfare” organizations but are primarily dedicated to supporting and opposing candidates and are poised to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on election advertising this year.

“The continued refusal by the IRS to reign in scofflaws abusing a privileged tax status has only encouraged even more blatant disregard for the law by these groups and their anonymous funders,” said J. Gerald Hebert, Executive Director of the Campaign Legal Center. “A secret ten million dollar contribution to run attack ads shows pure contempt for the law, the agency’s willingness to enforce it, and the public’s right to know who is funding our elections. The IRS must do its job and enforce the law even in the face of political pressure to let the scofflaws continue.”

More there and as they noted: To read the full letter, click here.

Transcript below the fold.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (251)

PLAYS: (2575)

Embed

The Karl Rove-backed group American Crossroads has come out with an ad that links Elizabeth Warren with the Occupy Wall Street movement. The open disdain is about as a subtle as a punch in the face.

NARRATOR: At Occupy Wall Street, protesters attack police, do drugs, and trash public parks. They support radical redistribution of wealth and violence. But Warren boasts "I created much of the intellectual foundation for what they do. I support what they do."

And so on.

The Boston Globe reports they'll spend $596,000 to air it, which sounds like a lot but really isn't in the expensive Boston market, and is just the first salvo from them against "Professor" Warren. This is just testing the waters now to see if it has any resonance with voters later on. That they're airing it this early though tells you everything you need to know about just how worried they are already.

UPDATE: (Editor's Note: Please send donations to Blue America's act blue page for Elizabeth Warren so she has a chance to fight back against these vicious Rovian smears)

DOWNLOADS: (362)

PLAYS: (1084)

Embed

Karl Rove is hitting back at President Barack Obama for calling out political groups that are influencing the midterm elections without disclosing their donors.

President George W. Bush's former senior adviser went as far as to suggest that Obama was using President Richard Nixon's tactics and having an "enemies list."

Obama took on Karl Rove by name Thursday at campaign event in Illinois for Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias. "Right here in Illinois, in this Senate race, two groups funded and advised by Karl Rove have outspent the Democratic Party two to one in an attempt to beat Alexi," said Obama.

75 percent of a recent $4 million ad buy by groups created by Rove were funded by undisclosed donors.

"The president is completely inaccurate," Rove told Fox News' Bret Baier Sunday.

"I am helping raise money for these groups," he admitted. "The difference between helping raise money and funding these groups -- the president left the implication at a speech on Thursday and this speech that I'm somehow taking a check out of my pocket and putting millions into these groups. I'm absolutely helping them. I am doing everything I possibly can to raise money for them."

Rove attempted to direct viewers to the American Crossroads website when they can contribute but was quickly cut off by Baier.

"They are tossing out these baseless charges," Rove said, defending groups that fund ads against Democratic candidates.

"The president of the United States accused the Chamber of Commerce, and the Democratic National Committee in its new ad accuses Ed Gillespie and I of a criminal violation of our law by getting foreign money and spending it on American political campaigns, and they have not one shred of evidence to back up that baseless lie. This is a desperate and I think disturbing trend by the president of the United States to tar his political adversaries with some kind of enemies list, with being unrestrained by any facts or evidence whatsoever," he said.

Sam Stein at The Huffington Post noted:

There is a obvious element of chutzpah when a political operative defined by his use of dirty tricks accuses his opponents of the same. And perhaps, underneath the veneer of shock and anger, Rove is admiring the work the White House has done in turning a report on the Chamber's funding into partisan red meat.

The fact remains, however, that a resolution to the debate is fairly obvious. Simply disclosing the names of who is donating to each of these institutions would clear the air and validate either Rove or the White House. But with a campaign finance law stuck in congressional limbo and hordes of potential donations at stake in this election, transparency has instead been replaced by innuendo.

"Have these people no shame?" asked Rove.

"Does the president of the United States have such little regard for the office he holds that he goes out there and makes these kind of baseless charges against his political enemies? This is just beyond the pale. How dare the president do this?"