Rove: Bachmann should release medical records

Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann needs to "get her doctors out there quickly to provide medical records" to clarify how migraines she suffers from affect her, top GOP strategist Karl Rove said on Wednesday.

The Minnesota lawmaker needs to "provide the reassurance that people are going to want to have that this is not a serious issue," Rove, who served as key political adviser to President George W. Bush, said on Fox News. Rove is now a consultant to the network.

Bachmann, one of the leading contenders for the Republican presidential nomination, was stung by a potentially-damaging story in the conservative Daily Caller website Tuesday suggesting she gets stress-induced migraine headaches that can incapacitate her for days at a time.

Bachmann acknowledged later that day that she gets migraine headaches but said they are "easily controlled by medication" and would not affect her "ability to serve as Commander in Chief." The statement did not address claims that she had been hospitalized at least three times in 2010 because of the migraines.

The allegations, which came from anonymous former staffers, prompted some on the left and the right to defend Bachmann, as well as charges of sexism since migraines disproportionately affect women.

But the story doesn't seem to be going away: Politico on Wednesday published a story backing up much of the Daily Caller's reporting and adding new details. The story said Bachmann missed eight House votes last July while hospitalized for a migraine, had to suspend a campaign in 2006 due to migraines that arose after an appendectomy, and needed emergency treatment and missed votes in May 2010 due to her migraines.

One former Bachmann staffer - who told Politico he or she was not one of the Daily Caller's sources - said Bachmann on multiple occasions retreated into her office for hours at a time and turned off the lights when affected by the migraines. The staffer said virtually Bachmann's entire staff was aware of the problem.

And Rove is far from alone in calling for Bachmann to release her medical records.

"We have learned that we need transparency--medical records, information about the medication, and preferably access to her health provider," Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota, told The Daily Beast. "Being president is too important for a 'trust me.'"

Bachmann is, of course, not the first presidential candidate to face questions about his or her health - in the last presidential cycle, Republican nominee Sen. John McCain faced questions about his history of skin cancer, and candidate Fred Thompson acknowledged his (in remission) lymphoma.  McCain released medical records in May 2008 showing him to be cancer free. And there has been a long history of candidates and presidents concealing their ailments from the general public.

Bachmann, for her part, is trying to move on. Pressed for more details about the migraines Wednesday morning, Bachmann declined to answer, pointing to her statement Tuesday.

"I keep a very vigorous schedule. I feel great and so we've answered that. What I'm here to talk about is the debt ceiling," she told reporters, as Radio Iowa's O. Kay Henderson reports.