White House Blasts New York Times Report

The White House is fighting hard against this New York Times report, which claims that President Obama's advisers are considering an ad blitz linking the GOP to the Tea Party. “The Times is just flat-out, 100% wrong,” a White House official tells Politico. “The first time Obama’s advisers heard about a national ad campaign is when the story showed up on the Times’ website last night.”

The Times, meanwhile, refused to back down, though it did quietly soften some of the language in the piece. “The sourcing on the story was solid,” says the paper’s deputy Washington bureau chief, noting that when David Axelrod provided an on-the-record quote disputing the story, it was promptly inserted. “There’s been no discussion of such a thing at the White House,” Axelrod is quoted as saying. (More New York Times stories.)