no surprise he voted for obama care. he supports obama s agenda 95% of the time. in brown s washington, talk is cheap. in ohio, it s costing us a fortune. that has nothing to do with sherrod brown. this is all by karl rove s crossroads group. it s a dark money group. they do not disclose where they get their money from. they don t have to because of this rule that says if you re running ads that aren t about a candidate, then all your money can be totally secret wrfrb that has been a self-policing rule. so the way that groups like karl rove s group say that ads like that aren t about any candidates is they put tags on the end that say tell claire mccaskill this, or tell president obama that. we re not advising you how to feel about thesis politicians, we re just helping you deliver to them a message about an issue. honestly, that s the one rule we have left in campaign finance in this country, and it s a farce. but there was a court ruling earlier this month that said if
really make these people feel like they are part of the operation going forward and kind of, again, raise that excitement level where they can bring in the money that it s going to take to knock off an incumbent president. all right. garret haake thank you very much. karl rove is facing increasing pressure from the obama campaign. they say rove s presence raises questions about coordination between outside groups and the campaigns. the obama campaign s top lawyer wrote a letter to karl rove obtained by the huffington post saying his defense of his crossroads group was mystifying and revealing. it goes on to say rove s position is as weak on the law as it is on the facts. rove says the complaint is a partisan ploy. joining me now writer for mother jones andrew krull. why is the obama campaign taking i guess this strong stance against karl rove being there? well, groups like karl rove s crossroads gps and the sister american crossroads are supposed
spending about $400 million in their efforts in the run-up to 2012. at this convention in a couple weekends in san diego, they could potentially, if the donors are enthusiastic enough, rise up over that $400 million effort in a truly historic spending binge in the run-up to 2012. i know you ve done a ton with money and politics, a lot of great coverage. $400 million from the kochs, what with relooking at? i have seen $2 billion thrown out there once we count all spending. is that not too conservative at this point? well, i mean, certainly we ve seen these gaudy numbers thrown out before and there s a tendency to kind of question that, be a little skeptical. if you remember, karl rove in the last cycle in late 2009, early 2010 when he was rolling out the crossroads group, he talked about a $52 million goal. we looked at the early fund-raising figures and they weren t that great and we started to question is he really going to be able to hit that goal. well, he hit it and exceeded it
the impact that supreme court decision would have on politics. who has been proven right by the numbers that we ve seen and the effectiveness of super pacs? is it too early to say who was right or wrong in this debate? it s a bit too early to say. the main worry after citizens united from some advocates of tighter campaign regulations was what we would see a lot of money directly from corporations and unions in these super pacs in these campaigns. so far, most of the money we re seeing is from wealthy individuals reaching into their own pockets and in some cases transmitting money everyone companies they own or control. but it s still more kind of a rich man s and rich kind of lady s game if you will. we haven t quite seen the flood of corporate money. there s also an important distinction. some of these groups including priorities is usa which is the obama super pac and the crossroads group founded by karl rove also have a sister organizations organized as
w. bush, who never left alabama, but he did get the outfit. that s the karl rove chapter in the big book of modern american political tactics. however wrong or dishonest it is, it can work when you get out ahead of the public, when you are out ahead, when you re able to define your opponent before they can define themselves. you can take their best quality, and you can twist it to make it bad. it s sort of astonishing when you look back at it from a distance, but when this karl rove tactic works it really works. when it doesn t work, though, it really, really doesn t work. take the scott brown versus elizabeth warren senate race that is shaping up in massachusetts. karl rove and his lavishly funded crossroads group have