Gibbs: We must continue to smear the Chamber of Commerce

Kitchen-sink time.

“The president will continue to make the argument that we don’t know where this money comes from and entities like the Chamber have said they get money from overseas,” Gibbs told reporters at the White House…

“The president didn’t do a bunch of his stump last night,” Gibbs said. “I expect that the president will continue to bring up the notion that … you’re probably going to see $150-plus million spent on largely negative campaign attack ads where the identity of those funding those attack ads is not known.”

Gibbs was asked if it bothered him that several news organizations, from the New York Times to the Associated Press and also FactCheck.org, have published reports dismissing the accusation against the Chamber.

“It doesn’t bother me at all,” Gibbs said. “If I was an enterprising reporter … I might ask the Chamber of Commerce to let me see their donors.”

I’m torn between the two leading theories on this. Is InstaGlenn right that this smear campaign is just the White House’s way of setting up a scapegoat for their inevitable beating next month? Or is Politico right that the White House is reveling in the sheer fun of kicking its enemies in the groin now that it has basically nothing to lose by doing so? I’m leaning towards the latter, just because I don’t see how the scapegoat theory would work in practice. Does Obama come out the day after election and tell the public, “You’re all easily-led suckers”? Even Democrats are getting nervous:

Some Democrats on Capitol Hill worry that the White House is going too far in charging that the politically powerful business lobby may be using foreign money to fuel its election efforts. The charge ignites strong feelings among job-hungry voters. But Democrats are concerned that it may be overstated and could harm moderate Democrats in swing districts…

“The White House may reap the whirlwind,” said one top Democratic staffer. “What are we going to do next year if a Republican Congress is making baseless claims about President Obama? We’ll want the media to hold them accountable to the facts and the evidence.”

Another Dem strategist tells Politico, “I cannot friggin’ figure out why this is a good message.” I don’t think they’re doing any major damage here either to the GOP or themselves (although we’ll see what happens with Chamber of Commerce endorsements for Democrats in 2012), but if they escalate this into a true witch hunt, replete with federal investigations — and Dick Durbin, at least, sounds like he’s ready for that — all bets are off. Click the image to watch.

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