Karl Rove to Obama: How dare you?

By Matt DeLong and Aaron Blake



Sunday Rundown: Today on the Sunday talk shows.



FOX NEWS SUNDAY - Rove to Obama: How dare you?

Former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove came out swinging against President Obama and Democrats who have leveled charges that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is accepting foreign donations to fund campaign attack ads. Rove said the "baseless" allegations were a "desperate political ploy" by the White House to distract from the economy. Rove pointed to a Saturday New York Times article reporting that the chamber's overseas fundraising is not "improper or even unusual." Rove also denounced a new Democratic National Committee ad accusing groups connected to Rove of using foreign funding to run ads against Democratic candidates as a "baseless lie." Rove acknowledged "doing everything" he can to help American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS to raise money, but he does not fund them. Rove said that the groups are abiding by all U.S. laws, and accused Obama of tarring his political adversaries with "some kind of enemies list." He added: "this is just beyond the pale. How dare the president do this?"



Substitute host Bret Baier had little control over the conversation between House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) -- much of which was inaudible as the two members of Congress talked over each other. One area of agreement, however, was Cantor's denunciation of Ohio GOP House candidate Rich Lott's longtime weekend hobby of dressing up as a Nazi during World War II reenactments. Cantor dismissed a Washington Post report that few GOP candidates have adopted the party's "Pledge to America" in their campaigns. Wasserman Schultz called for a national moratorium on foreclosures, while Cantor said such a move would "shut down the housing industry."



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ABC: THIS WEEK - Blumenthal: Military service not an issue

Connecticut Democratic Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal said he doesn't think his misrepresentations about having served in Vietnam will be at the forefront of voters' minds in three weeks. "I think the voters of Connecticut are concerned about the real issues, and I believe those are the issues that will be center in the election," Blumenthal, the state's attorney general, said. Blumenthal's opponent, former World Wrestling Entertainment chief executive Linda McMahon, was asked about her own political liabilities - namely, the sometimes degrading depiction of women in the wrestling ring. McMahon said she is "happy with the content today," now that the show is more family friendly. "In WWE, women really are powerful women. ... I much prefer it today."



Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf defended his country against allegations from the U.S. government that Pakistan has not done enough to combat terrorism.

"Pakistan has always been accused of not doing enough, but I totally disagree with this statement," Musharraf said. "Pakistan is doing enough." Musharraf said everyone in the world should "let Pakistan alone, and let us deal with this situation."



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CBS: FACE THE NATION - Axelrod to Chamber: Open your books



When asked for evidence that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's overseas fundraising amounted to more than "peanuts" in the group's $200 million annual budget, White House senior adviser David Axelrod challenged host Bob Schieffer to prove a negative. "Well, do you have any evidence that it's not, Bob?" Axelrod said as he called for the chamber and other groups spending heavily on midterm elections to open their books and disclose their funders.

Former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie -- who along with Karl Rove founded two such groups, American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS -- accused Axelrod of being "either woefully uninformed or willfully deceptive and dishonest." Like Rove, he said these groups are obeying the law. "If people want to change the rules and have that debate, that's fine," Gillespie said. "But don't accuse those who are playing by the rules of somehow doing something unethical or illegal." Gillespie said tea partiers had been "a little disruptive" during the GOP primary process, but he said he prefers the party to have "growing pains rather than shrinking pains."



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NBC: MEET THE PRESS - Illinois Senate face-off

Illinois Senate candidates Rep. Mark Kirk (R) and state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias (D) debated, with Giannoulias defending the stimulus package passed by Democrats last year. He also said he would be open to another stimulus package under the right set of circumstances. "It wasn't flawlessly done, but if you take a look at what would have happened, I mean, do we need to see soup lines down the street to figure out what would have happened?" Giannoulias said. Pressed repeatedly on whether he knew if his family bank was loaning money to convicted criminals, Giannoulias said he "didn't know the extent" of their criminal pasts. A Chicago Tribune story this year detailed $20 million in loans to two convicted criminals by Broadway Bank. "If I knew then what we know now, these aren't the kind of people you do business with," Giannoulias said.



Giannoulias then mixed it up with Kirk, referring to the congressman's frequent mischaracterizations of his military record. "He says he's a fiscal hawk; the congressman has told some real whoppers during this campaign, but that may be the biggest one of all," Giannoulias said. Confronted with his various misstatements about his military record, Kirk said he "was careless, and I learned a very painful and humbling lesson." He said that it's fair game for voters and the media to use those misstatements when evaluating his candidacy.



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CNN: STATE OF THE UNION - Both parties bullish on November chances

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen said he remains "very positive and bullish" about Democrats' chances of keeping the House this year, despite increasing projections that Republicans will retake the majority.



Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the recruitment chair at the National Republican Congressional Committee, said there are 80 seats in which the Democratic incumbent or candidate is below 50 percent in the polls - an ominous sign for the party. "I think there's a great chance that we take the House," McCarthy said.