Romney's Tax Man Cometh

Poor, poor Mitt. He and his dancing horse have been having a tough go of it lately. Turns out he may (or may not!) have lied to the SEC about the good times he had at Bain capital between 1999 and 2002, presiding over the disposal ofdead fetuses  unborn babies before retroactively retiring . Then a bunch of conservatives went on the teevee and demanded that he release more than two years’ of tax returns, except for the Governor of Alabama , who had just said that he thought that PEOPLE, not ROMNEY in particular, just PEOPLE should release their tax returns because of transparency. Even our favorite sexist morning show host Joe Scarborough (no offense to our second favorite sexist morning show host, Steve Doocy!) thinks Romney might have not paid any taxes for a couple years, but that he should just release them anyway and “take the hit." But this tax returns business is just SILLINESS, because no matter how many tax returns he releases, “it won’t be enough!” It will just give the Obama people more fodder for their lies anddistortions . And also, Teresa Kerry (who wasn’t running for president) didn’t release hers and “this wasn’t an issue” (except it was ) so why should he, Mitt Romney, lord of the Free Market, master of time , and possessor of a record that is all about winning the future , have to release his?

Via ABC :

Mitt Romney is standing firm on his plans to release two years worth of tax returns and nothing more.   Romney already released his tax return for 2010, and an estimate for 2011.  When asked for a firm date for the release of the 2011 return, a top Romney adviser said he couldn’t provide one.

On Fox News this morning, Romney said, “John McCain ran for president and released two years of tax returns.”  He added, “John Kerry ran for president and you know his wife who has hundreds of millions of dollars.  She never released her tax returns and somehow this wasn’t an issue.”

The Romney campaign believes the issue of Romney’s returns isn’t resonating with voters as much as the Obama campaign would like…

In addition to stepping up their attacks on what they call President Obama’s cronyism – rewarding wealthy donors and friends — the Romney campaign will also argue this week that this debate over Romney’s tax returns and the candidate’s role three years after Romney left Bain Capital in 1999 are “distractions” by the Obama campaign.  Romney, they say, remains focused on the big issues including the economy and jobs.

 Felonies . Distractions. Tomato. Tomahto. Let’s just enjoy this brief and fleeting moment wherein Democratic strategists are on the offensive for once, shall we?

 [ABC]