David Axelrod, President Obama’s top campaign strategist, repeated Republican candidate Newt Gingrich’s criticism of Mitt Romney having bank acocunts outside the United States, with Gingrich saying today that Romney wants to “protect the old order” for Wall Street and Axelrod claiming Romney would defend tax “rules [that] are not right.”
“I am not saying he didn’t play by the rules,” Axelrod said of Romney on Meet the Press today. “The rules allow you to have Swiss bank accounts, the rules allow you to put your money in the Cayman Islands, and to set up businesses in Bermuda — the rules allow all that. The question is, are the rules right? He would continue those rules. They are not right.”
Axelrod’s charge paralled an attack frm Gingrich earlier this week. “We’re not going to beat Barack Obama with someone who owns Swiss bank accounts, Cayman Island accounts,” Gingrich said at a Florida campaign stop. “I am running for president to represent you, not to represent the Washington establishment, not to represent Goldman Sachs.”
Gingrich, speaking on Fox News Sunday today, redoubled his attack on Romney by tying him to the status quo in a manner analogous to Axelrod’s charge. “If you look at the list of Romney’s fundraisers, they’re all from Wall Street,” he said. “They have a vested interest in protecting the old order. And I think that’s a mistake. We need to change Washington, not keep it in it’s current form.”
