Within three days of both presidential campaigns suspending attacks -- at least in one state -- after a shooting in Aurora, Colo., the Obama team is back on the offensive.
Two top campaigners, spokesman Ben LaBolt and adviser David Axelrod, took to Twitter on Monday morning to go after Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney for his tenure at Bain Capital, his refusal to release more tax returns and his time working for the Olympics. The return to that line of attack comes despite a brief detente Friday, when both candidates turned campaign events to short speeches expressing grief about the shooting that killed 12 people and injured 58 in Colorado. Each campaign also suspended some ads in the state in light of the tragedy.
On Monday, LaBolt and Axelrod tweeted about Romney's secrecy, the Democratic National Committee sent reporters a Washington Post Fact Checker post about Romney's involvement at Bain and the Obama campaign announced a conference call on foreign policy. Three articles linked to by LaBolt and the DNC, notably, were published on the day of the shooting but not pointed to until today.
"Globe says Romney kept reins post 99," LaBolt tweeted, linking to a Friday Boston Globe story about Bain. The DNC also sent out that article.
Axelrod went after Romney for both his tax returns and the Olympics, linking to stories from Monday. "Tax returns. Bundlers. Bain. MA records & now key docs from Olympics. When it comes to secrecy, Mitt takes the gold!," he wrote, linking to an ABC article. His next tweet -- "And on the subject of secrecy" -- points to this CNN Money post on Romney's refusal to release more tax returns.
In addition to its emails linking to the Boston Globe and The Washington Post, the DNC sent reporters a Mother Jones article from Friday on outsourcing at Bain.
UPDATE: 11:10 a.m. -- Republicans are also back in the fight. The Republican National Committee sent an email to reporters later Monday attacking Obama for saying -- as has been repeatedly taken out of context -- "If you've got a business -- you didn't build that." RNC spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowsk tweeted around 11 a.m. about the "really rough economic headlines for Obama today," linking to a MarketWatch story that then was retweeted by Romney spokesman Ryan Williams.