Why Karl Rove and U.S. Chamber are laughing at their critics

I'm really sorry to be a broken record about this. But a discussion has erupted today among some of our sharpest political commentators about the secret money funding the massive ad onslaught against Dems mounted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the groups founded by Karl Rove.

And no one is talking about what's in the ads themselves. No one is talking about how these ads are filled with multiple distortions and debunked falsehoods. In other words, no one is talking about what it is the voters themselves are seeing in these ads on an hourly basis. The discussion is largely a Beltway process argument about matters such as whether attack ads are effective and whether the Dem criticism of the secret cash is working politically for them.

None of this discussion does anything to undercut or challenge what the Chamber and Rove's groups are actually up to here: They are flooding airwaves across the country with a massive, secret-donor-funded campaign that's designed to tip control of Congress with a campaign of misinformation, distortions and falsehoods that have been widely debunked by independent fact checkers but nonetheless have attracted little to no notice.

To be clear, contributors to today's discussion -- which was sparked by David Brooks' column arguing that attack ads don't really matter much -- made some very good points. Glenn Greenwald noted that Brooks seems to be lowballing his estimate of the amounts being spent by these groups. Michael Crowley pointed out why these ads do, in fact, matter. Joe Klein argued that voters have a right to know who's paying for the ads persuading them who to choose as their representatives.

All very good stuff, no question. But while this Beltway debate is unfolding, Rove and the Chamber are laughing all the way to a quasi-bought-and-paid-for Congressional majority. Because the stuff the voters are seeing isn't being challenged in any significant way or subjected to any high-profile media scrutiny -- certainly nothing along the lines of the scrutiny that was rightly applied to White House and Dem claims about the Chamber. For some reason, no one wants to go there.

I don't know what the answer to this problem is. Maybe no amount of fact-checking will penetrate the advertising din these groups have unleashed. But surely the substance of what's in the ads themselves deserves more attention.

And now I will quietly retreat into my padded cell. Thanks for listening.