Associated Press
Sen. Scott Brown (R) seems to believe Elizabeth Warren's personal finances are of the utmost importance in this year's Senate race in Massachusetts. To that end, the Republican is releasing his tax returns for the last six years, and wants his Democratic challenger to do the same. That wouldn't be especially noteworthy were it not for the larger context.
[Scott Brown's] campaign argues that the public deserves to see numerous years.
"The tax years you are attempting to conceal contain important and potentially revealing information," Browns' campaign manager, Jim Barnett, wrote in a letter today to Warren, his Democratic challenger.
He also accused Warren of "political gamesmanship" on the issue, and said Brown would release six years worth of his tax returns on Friday.
Why should anyone outside Massachusetts care? Because it turns out, the Republican senator's top political advisers are the same people advising Mitt Romney, who's trying to keep his tax returns secret.
In other words, the same campaign strategists telling Brown to push for more disclosure are also telling Romney to push for less disclosure. Eric Fehrnstrom, who advises both Romney and Brown, believes it's wrong if Elizabeth Warren releases only two years of tax documents, but also believes it's perfectly acceptable if Romney does the same thing.
Asked to explain the disconnect, "neither Fehrnstrom nor a Romney campaign spokeswoman immediately responded to a request for comment."
Brown's strategy certainly makes sense for his campaign, but it makes Romney's life more complicated. After all, the former governor turned over 23 years worth of tax returns to John McCain in 2008, but now wants to keep those same materials from the public. Why? They won't say.
For what it's worth, American Bridge 21st Century's Rodell Mollineau recently published a detailed memo, noting the 12 things Americans could learn from Romney's returns, if he discovers the benefits of disclosure. It's not a short list, reinforcing the significance of the issue.
President Obama and Vice President Biden have already put 12 years worth of returns online, available for public scrutiny.
Leave a Comment:
Romney can make decisions just look at how fast he could move his money to those Cayman Islands and Swiss bank accounts so he doesn’t have to pay taxes on that money. And when Romney worked at Bain Capital scamming and stealing millions of dollars in bank loans off the companies they bought than cutting the companies budgets and firing people. See Romney knows how to make decisions in a corrupt way and it doesn’t bother him a bit. Actually, Romney is very proud of what he has done and has even stated that.
There must be some VERY bad looking stuff in his records. There really is no other excuse.
Old P.T. Barnum trick: Hey! Look at what the other person is doing!!
There's a reason McCain reached so far into the bottom of the barrel for a VP choice. Romney didn't even make the short list, and you would think he could have used someone who was an "expert on economics" or at least something.
Romney is not an expert on economics. Mr. Romney is an expert at venture capitalism. Unfortunately, the general public is encouraged by Romney's campaign to conflate the terms, "successful venture capitalist" and "world-class economist." The two are significantly different.
I believe the quotation marks around "expert on economics" indicate an ironic reference to Sarah Palin, John McCain's "expert on energy."
Mitt Romney's campaign seems to have stepped into a house of mirrors. This situation normally causes mild self-mocking hilarity at the misshapen images, generally followed by confusion, and ends with a pressing desire to exit the distortions and dead ends. Don't let this dishearten you staunch Romney fans, however. He is a true narcissist and is having the time of his life.
Keep this up and Mitt might get mad and decide to take his marbles and go home, well that is he would if he had not lost his marbles and if he could decide which home to go to.
One other thing to learn about Mitt's tax returns. He probably spent more for accountants than 70% of us made over that time period. In fact it was probably his best job creation ever, just in accountants.