Rove says no foreign donors

WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 (UPI) -- Republican strategist Karl Rove said Wednesday there have been no foreign contributors to his campaign fundraising group American Crossroads.

Rove's assertion came as he and White House spokesman Robert Gibbs engaged in a sort of "zero" sum match of political gamesmanship as the Nov. 2 elections near.

A day after Gibbs showed reporters a blank piece of paper to demonstrate zero names on the Obama administration's enemies list -- in response to Rove's allegation there is such a list -- Rove went on Fox News Channel Wednesday and held up his own piece of paper with the number zero on it, saying there have been "Zero, zero, zero" foreign contributors to American Crossroads.

Rove went on to say there is "no evidence whatsoever" to support President Barack Obama's accusation that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and American Crossroads have foreign donors.

A liberal blog, ThinkProgress, reported last week the U.S. Chamber of Commerce -- which is legally permitted to raise and spend unlimited amounts of political money without disclosing its donors -- funds campaign attack ads out of its general account, which solicits foreign funding.

Rove, who was a senior adviser in the George W. Bush administration and is now a Fox News analyst, said the Obama administration has "chewed up" a quarter of the time left before the Nov. 2 elections "on an issue that nobody cares about. And in which they damaged their own credibility."

Rove said Americans are concerned about issues such as jobs, the economy, spending deficits and healthcare, not campaign spending.

"Those are the things driving the ballot and when the White House goes off and talks about these kind of things, phony charges about foreign money, buying and stealing American democracy, the American people look at the White House and say you're disconnected from what we really care about," he said.

Rove said Democrats appear to have "withdrawn from the field of battle" in 10 House races, while American Crossroads, American Action Networks and other conservative groups have plunged $50 million in a "House surge strategy."

"They're going to go in and play in these races," he said. "We're going to put to it good use to defend -- to defeat Democrats who have supported the president's agenda."