Kaine to Rove: 'Prove it'

The Democratic National Committee is jumping this afternoon on Karl Rove's effort to distance himself from the big outside Republican groups — he says he hasn't "funded" the groups, as Obama charged; he has, reportedly, helped them raise money, but not written checks himself.

Chairman Tim Kaine used Rove's denial — which can't be proved, of course, by a group that keeps its donors secret — to renew calls for disclosure:

The President raised a serious issue with the American people about the corrupting influence of corporate and foreign money in American elections through groups like the Chamber of Commerce and Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS which don’t have to disclose their donors. Despite multiple confirmed accounts of American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS being conceived in his own home, promoting the group extensively in the media, and raising funds for it, Karl Rove claims that he is not helping to fund these groups. Despite this undeniable evidence of Mr. Rove’s extensive participation in the founding, financing and execution of American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS, Mr. Rove has gone further and accused the President of being misleading. These are serious accusations — accusations that we would think Mr. Rove would be willing to back up with incontrovertible evidence. So, our message to Mr. Rove is — Prove it. Disclose immediately a complete list of donors to American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS, and the amount and date of their donations, for public scrutiny. If Mr. Rove has nothing to hide this shouldn’t be a problem.



UPDATE: American Crossroads' Jonathan Collegio emails:

Ninety-five thousand Americans lost their jobs last month, $1.3 trillion was just added to the national debt, and Barack Obama and Tim Kaine are attempting to distract voters from those facts with a political ploy – even as their union and liberal allies plan more than $100 million in expenditures from undisclosed sources this year alone.