A conservative 527 organization with ties to Republicans Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie is calling on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) to donate to charity the sum of all money ever received from Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel.
American Crossroads made the demand on Friday, the day after Rangel was charged by the House ethics committee with 13 violations.
“The DCCC has received more than $1.2 million from Charles Rangel over his career – and by their own standards the Democrats should very obviously give every penny of that to charity,” said American Crossroads communications director Jonathan Collegio. “Democrat party apparatchiks have a nasty habit of promoting and taking money from tax hikers who allegedly evade their own taxes – like Rangel, Tim Geithner, John Kerry and Tom Daschle. They should live by their own standards and give that money to charity or write a nice check on their behalf to Uncle Sam.”
The DCCC, reached for comment, did not directly address the demand by American Crossroads. Instead, a spokesman brought up another controversy by questioning whether American Crossroads accepted dollars from donors Samuel Wyly and Charles Wyly, something the 527 denies ever being the case.
“The Wyly brothers were charged with using secret foreign bank accounts to massively defraud American taxpayers and reap $550 million dollars while giving millions of dollars to Republicans, so it’s no wonder Karl Rove is desperately trying to change the subject,” said Ryan Rudominer, a spokesman for the DCCC. “Voters have a right to know if people who used foreign accounts for a half a billion fraud are funding shady right wing groups like Karl Rove’s to launch misleading attacks against Democrats.”