The architect of former President George W. Bush's controversial 2000 and 2004 campaigns is calling on President Barack Obama to stop using "gutter politics" to suggest presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney could be guilty of a felony by lying about when he left Bain Capital.
After The Boston Globe revealed on Thursday that Romney was listed as the "sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president" of Bain even after he claimed he had retired in 1999, Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter noted that lying on SEC filings was a felony.
Rove on Sunday said the Obama campaign had crossed the line with that suggestion and insisted that the notion Romney was involved with Bain after 1999 was "total boloney."
"The fact of the matter is if the president continues to make this charge -- this outrageous charge -- that Mitt Romney is guilty of felonious activity and committed a felony, that's a big mistake," Rove opined.
"This is gutter politics of the worst Chicago sort."
And Rove knows gutter politics when he sees it.
During then-Gov. George W. Bush's 2000 campaign for president, Rove was accused of orchestrating a whisper campaign to suggest that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) "had fathered an illegitimate black child." In 2003, conservative columnist Robert Novak told federal prosecutors that Rove had also participated in outing CIA agent Valerie Plame in an effort to discredit her husband, Ambassador Joe Wilson, after he accused the Bush administration of invading Iraq under false pretenses.
(h/t: The Hill)
