The DNC is attacking Karl Rove in an national cable TV ad to run this week. | AP Photo Rove claims Obama 'enemies list'

Karl Rove charged Sunday that President Barack Obama has an “enemies list,” after the White House escalated its argument that Rove and others are orchestrating a flood of midterm-election ads paid for by unknown donors.

The Democratic National Committee is attacking Rove and another top GOP strategist, Ed Gillespie, in an ad that is to begin a weeklong run on national cable early this week.


“Karl Rove, Ed Gillespie: They're Bush cronies,” the ad charges. “The U.S. Chamber of Commerce: They're shills for Big Business. And they're stealing our democracy. … Tell the Bush crowd and the Chamber of Commerce: Stop stealing our democracy.”

Rove, in an e-mail to POLITICO, said: ““It is sad to see the president diminish his office by these baseless attacks. Even the truth doesn't restrain him when it comes to assaulting his enemies list.”

Thomas J. Collamore, a Chamber senior vice president, called the ad “rubbish.”

And Gillespie said in an e-mail: “Those who benefited from … outside money in 2008 to help elect Barack Obama, much of it from undisclosed donors, have to come to terms with the fact that the playing field will be more even this year.”

Aides tell POLITICO that Obama plans to continue accusing the Chamber of using “foreign money” to fund election ads, despite a New York Times article on Saturday that found “little evidence that what the Chamber does in collecting overseas dues is improper or even unusual.”

“The Times is hung up on whether or not the Chamber is following the letter of the law,” a White House official said. “We will continue to point out that the only way to put to rest the important questions that have been raised about their $75 million ad campaign is for the Chamber to disclose basic information about their donors.”

On CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, White House senior adviser David Axelrod told Bob Schieffer: “Why not simply disclose where this money is coming from? And then all of these questions’ll be answered. … [T]hese interest groups … are now the major force in some of these campaigns … This issue of this special-interest spending is VERY important. It’s never happened before, that organizations are spending this kind of money.”

On other topics, Axelrod gave a hint of a possible post-election message for the White House: “I’m hoping that with more seats, the Republicans will feel a greater sense of responsibility to work with us to solve some of these problems.”

On Sarah Palin, Axelrod said: “She certainly has a following, and she’s an interesting personality. … When she sends out a tweet on Twitter, or puts something on her Facebook, you guys cover it; people respond to it. And so that makes her a player in our politics.”