Top Story: Karl Rove Super PAC Skirts 30-Day Election
Law But Nobody Is Talking About That

The outrageous ad by Priorities USA Action, the Obama Super PAC?the one that accuses Mitt Romney of being responsible for a woman?s death from cancer, apparently on the theory that Romney was personally responsible for providing health insurance and health care services to family members of anyone who ever worked for a company in which Bain Capital invested, in perpetuity?has blown up in Obama?s face like an exploding cigar. – Has the Obama Campaign Gone Too Far

NEVER MIND that Priorities USA and Team Obama can’t coordinate. We went through this with Super PACS affiliated with Mitt Romney earlier this year. We all know how this works. But at least Priorities USA isn’t skirting FEC regulations, which is exactly what Karl Rove is being accused of doing right now with this ad.

Karl Rove and the Koch Bros. have already been twisting election law on “social welfare” ads in order to protect their donors’ anonymity, which I wrote about in detail, though most everyone else ignored the story.

But today while everyone in the media from the right’s Joe Scarborough to Beltway man Mark Halperin to the far right’s cheer leader Fox News squeals bloody murder about a Priorities USA ad, there has been very little said about Crossroads GPS currently running negative ads against Obama without disclosing donors well after the 30-day convention deadline.

The new commercial — which opens with a clip of CBS News anchor Scott Pelley saying, ?This is the worst economic recovery America has ever had? — began running Tuesday in nine battleground states. Part of Crossroads GPS? most recent $25-million buy, the ad is set to run through Aug. 6, the group announced on its website. That means the commercial will be on the air less than 30 days before a party convention — a period of time in which groups that air ?electioneering communications? must disclose all their contributors for the cycle, the result of a federal court ruling this spring. – Crossroads GPS tries to squeak past disclosure window

The story above from the Los Angeles Times ran on August 1. U.S. News & World Report picks it up today, but no one is talking about that. Everyone else is honed in on the one Super PAC that supports Obama. Priorities USA is pretty much the only ballgame for Democrats, while Republicans have group after group hitting Pres. Obama.

Joe Scarborough and Mark Halperin double-teamed Robert Gibbs on Wednesday demanding he denounce the Priorities USA ad, but to my knowledge “Morning Joe” hasn’t picked up anything on Karl Rove’s Super PAC skirting FEC election law, whether it’s the “social welfare” scam aspect, pretending to run an ad for the good of everyone, while slamming Obama, and hiding their anonymous donors, or his group running ads past deadline without disclosing donors.

Robert Gibbs was right when he turned the tables on Scarborough to talk about an ad Mitt Romney’s responsible for, which is the welfare ad that’s a pack of lies. Scarborough feigned ignorance of the welfare ad details, which of course Gibbs wasn’t allowed to do on the Priorities USA ad.

Michael Steele added that he had a “visceral reaction” to the Priorities USA ad in “his living room.”

Well, we’re watching Karl Rove ads all day long during the Olympics and every other program, some of which have nothing to do with “social welfare” and shouldn’t be on the air without disclosing their donors, and others running past the 30-day rule without doing so as well. So, Mssrs. Steele and Halperin (but not Scarborough, for reasons already stated) can kiss by ex-dancer derriere.

Now the entire right from wingnut radio to Fox News Channel to the blogosphere is focused on Priorities USA.

Unable to run on his record, President Hope-and-Change has built a campaign based entirely on scurrilous lies about Mitt Romney. But the latest reaches a historic, despicable low. – The Obama Campaign Hits A New Low

The double standard on Super PAC ads pits the Rove, Koch Bros, and 60 Plus Goliath against the Priorities USA David. I’m just wondering when Democrats are going to turn the discussion toward Republican Super PACS and Rove, because he’s getting away with actually skirting FEC regulations, while all Priorities USA did is hit a nerve.

It’s the point that got Alan Grayson in so much trouble when he said the Republican health care plan is if you don’t have health insurance “you die.”

The bootstrap Republican philosophy simply doesn’t work, especially when you have no job, no money and you get sick and run out of options.

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