Reader Dan Sachar asked me via Twitter yesterday to tackle a good question: "Question for you to explore: Romney digs in on tax returns. Will press keep asking him or get bored and move on?"
The latter possibility seems plausible, doesn't it? Whereas Mitt Romney's hidden tax returns were a major topic of conversation for a short while, the political world invariably shifts its focus as new stories come to light, and the drum beat has obviously grown quieter.
That said, as NBC's Brian Williams demonstrated last night, the issue hasn't completely disappeared, at least not yet.
Given Romney's response, it doesn't seem like he's even considering more disclosure. The polls show Americans want and expect more transparency, but the Republican candidate, at this point, doesn't seem to care.
Also, note how unpersuasive the explanation is: Romney won't disclose more information because "Democrat [sic] operatives" will "twist and distort" the information.
Dahlia Lithwick and Raymond Vasvari recently had a terrific take on this argument: "[Romney] isn't actually claiming that his opponents will lie. He's claiming he's entitled to hide the truth because it could be used against him.... These are tax returns. Factual documents. No different than, say, a birth certificate. But the GOP's argument that inconvenient facts can be withheld from public scrutiny simply because they can be used for mean purposes is a radical idea in a democracy."
But what about Sachar's question: will this keep dogging Romney or not? If I had to guess, regrettably, I'd say no.
We're clearly not yet at the point at which news organizations have given up. Williams was right to press Romney on this last night, and today, the Union Leader newspaper in Manchester, N.H., run by a very conservative editorial board, hit Romney pretty hard over his secrecy.
"Surely he could not have arrogantly believed that he could withstand any storm that developed by bluffing his way through it? If so, it hasn't worked," the editors wrote.
But hasn't it? Romney and his team have buckled down, refused all requests for transparency, and fully expect to hear fewer questions on the matter going forward -- and sure enough, the questions are starting to fade.
Paul Waldman had a good take on this the other day.
Any time a politician faces pressure to do something he doesn't want to do, there's a calculation involved about the arc of the story and the cumulative effect of the two courses he could take. I can take the slings and arrows of the moment and hold out, in the hopes that the story will go away, or I can succumb and hope that by getting the pain over quickly, the damage will be minimized.
The conventional wisdom has become that any time there's damaging information about you, you have to get it all out as soon as possible, and there are certainly plenty of cases in which a politician didn't do so and ended up suffering both from the information itself and his initial stonewalling against releasing it. But that need not always be the case. Mitt Romney may just have bet correctly that he could stand firm against releasing his tax forms from any year before 2010 and get away with it.
I suspect Team Romney believes they're taking some minor hits in July, but by the fall, the conversation will have moved on. And for the record, I don't necessarily even blame news organizations for shifting their attention -- there's only so many times a media outlet can say, "Another day, still no tax returns from Gov. Romney."
If the polls show Americans turning on Romney in significant numbers based on his secrecy and lack of disclosure, I imagine the Republican candidate will reconsider. But so long as Romney isn't really feeling any meaningful consequences from his refusals, I'd be quite surprised if we see any additional tax returns.
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Tax return non-disclosures, Swiss Bank accounts, Caymen Island accounts, it all seems very "foreign" to me.
At this point, it won't really change things if he releases them and they're normal... he's set himself up as an aristocrat, perhaps even royalty, above the concerns and restrictions that normal mortals endure, and that kind of arrogance is difficult to live down.
And how dare us question his highness. But then again the birthers...
This is where Democrats show their stupidity at winning. By now, they should know how the press works. And they should know that if they want something to stay in the headlines, they have to make their own statements. The press will do stenography, so Democrats need to give them something to copy down. It's up to the Democrats to keep this going. And they should. But Democrats have a problem with steadfastness and intestinal fortitude.
Speaking of things that have gotten stale, Disgusted, your "Democrats are useless" schtick is way past its sell-by date. And you don't get the press to continue with a story through "steadfastness and intestinal fortitude." You do it by giving them something new to make it news.
I'll also disagree with Steve on this -- the Obama campaign have shown themselves to be some pretty sharp operators. I'm confident they wouldn't have brought up the tax returns in the dog days of July if they didn't have anything to follow it up with. The initial salvo was just priming the pump. Everyone now assumes that Romney is hiding something bad, and that's what needed to be accomplished before the conventions and the active campaign season. When more people are paying attention, new revelations will dribble out that will make it news again.
"Useless" isn't the word I've used. The words I've used are cowardice, spineless, impotent, politically incompetent, ..., things like that. And I don't care if you're tired of it. Dems have a long way to go to show their supporters they have a backbone when it comes to standing up to attacks of their positions, especially when those positions are actually popular with the public. A very long way to go.
Barack Obama doesn’t respect democracy, the rule of law, the American people, or the office he holds. He is unfit to be the President of the United States and that’s become clearer by the day.
Obama broke the law to cheat people — rightfully owed money by Chevrolet and GM — out of their cash so he could help his union allies instead. His administration funneled more than 1/2 a billion dollars to Solyndra, even though it knew the company was likely to go under to help out George Kaiser who was a major Obama bundler. There are more than 300 Mexicans and at least one American, maybe two dead because the Obama administration helped put guns in the hands of Mexican cartels. When Obama couldn’t get the Dream Act through Congress, not only did he decide not to enforce the law, he illegally decided to hand out work permits, something he doesn’t have the power to do. After the Supreme Court didn’t give him everything he wanted in his dispute with Arizona, he declared a de facto amnesty in that state to punish it by refusing to pick up illegal aliens captured by the police.
These are the actions of a wannabe Hugh Chavez, not the actions of a man who belongs in the White House. This is not a man who’s worthy of the presidency
That's the weirdest take on Mitt Romney's tax returns I've ever seen. Not to mention probably a record setter in evidence-free nonsensical assertions. And I'd bet that's the best you can do.
He/she/it is most likely doing a cut&paste of one of those infamous forward of a forward of a forward... emails.
http://www.rightwingnews.com/uncategorized/obamas-increasingly-corrupt-and-lawless-administration/
You should say that you found out who this obnoxious troll is (or is it that the troll just copied this nonsense?). Either way, he seems to be a libertarian kook. What a surprise. Good find.
He's been banned.
Yes, but he was banned for being a "multiple accounter"*, not for being a nouveau-Klansman.
* Not to be confused with being a "multiple accountant", I suppose.
I'd bet it was really was for being a Klansman; the multiple account was just an excuse. Don't want to offend any polite Klansman that watch MSNBC, you know :-)
When I was a kid there was a hostage crisis in Iran. Every night the evening news led with "Day XX and the hostages in Iran..."
But we entered the Bush years and ABC/CBS got bullied out of reporting the dead in Iraq every night and it was considered unpatriotic to show pictures from Dover AFB lest the American public get disenchanted and start making noise.
We entered the 'Era of the Whiny Republican'™ where every inconvenient fact is unfairly partisan and an attack. The media needs to "sack up" as the Aussies say.
it's up to us to keep this issue alive.
what is he hiding in the tax returns
What about all the liberal faggot congress men and women who hide their tax returns. What about Odumba hiding his school transcripts. What about the crooked Odumba dealings in Chicago. What about all the KFC and watermelon eaten in the white house.
Contrary to your name, Obama is a winner; it's racists like you who are the losers. If you had any valid points, which you don't, you'd have completely undermined them by saying these racist, bigoted things.
Obama_is_a_Loser banned, rereg of multiple accounter Disgusted-2685310. Multiple account obama.is.a.loser also banned.
I think more attention to the returns he has provided. It might be that he had them sanitized and in fact committed fraud. Wouldn't that be neat?
Why is Obama's college career a secret? Expecting Romney to do what Obama won't, is just another opportunity to question Obama's hidden past.
And again, what exactly is it you believe is hidden? Riding that veeting Obama train a little too long?
Ummm... Obama DID release his tax returns, that's what Romney's being asked for. College transcripts are NOT part of the required revelations for public office, so your comparison is essentially saying in poker "I won't show my cards until you show me your bank account."
I find myself confused by your wingnut talking point. Obama isn't asking Romney to release his own college transcripts. He's asking Romney to release his tax returns. And, as it happens, Obama has released his own tax returns back to 2000.
And, here in Sane World, that's how it works. The quid pro quo for seeking release of your opponent's tax returns is to release your own tax returns. Indeed, if Obama had said "I have released my college transcripts and now demand that Romney release his tax returns," most sane people would have been scratching their heads saying "WTF?"
Yet, somehow over in the wingnut sphere, it makes total sense that Obama releasing his tax returns doesn't give him standing to demand release of Romney's tax returns unless he also releases thid entirely other completely unrelated thing that no presidential campaign in the history of the Republic has ever deemed relevant or of public concern.
Gosh I mean he really should provide those transcripts, every president before him has.
You amaze me and I live in the South amid republicans!
And again, it's not like the public can't see if the President has the intellect for the job. They can ask Laurence Tribe and he will tell them Obama was the best he had seen. That's not light praise. But tax returns tell a different story, don't they. There's information in there that the public has no other way of obtaining except in the returns, and that would provide some context to Romney's interest in lowering taxes for upper income people like himself and raising it for lower levels of income.
Let's see those returns.
But President Obama has released more then 1 year of returns ! In fact he's released all of them since 2000. Not sure how the Country or Romney is asking something of one that the other hasn't already done !
Dumb question. He graduated with top honors. What's the secret???
Well, you know how it is. Harvard Law just tosses those magna cum laudes out like beads at Mardi Gras. It's not like there are any academic requirements that have to be met. Not for those people *wink*wink*nod*nod* at any rate.
Actually, those requirements are a mystery too. How did a self-confessed dope smoking slacker even get into Harvard without *wink*wink*nod*nod*?
He's smart.
For one, he wasn't a slacker; I'll guarantee he worked harder and smarter than you ever did, Shooter. For another, he got in on his own merits, unlike Dubya and Mitt. Can you say the same?
Barack Obama doesn’t respect democracy, the rule of law, the American people, or the office he holds. He is unfit to be the President of the United States and that’s become clearer by the day.
Obama broke the law to cheat people — rightfully owed money by Chevrolet and GM — out of their cash so he could help his union allies instead. His administration funneled more than 1/2 a billion dollars to Solyndra, even though it knew the company was likely to go under to help out George Kaiser who was a major Obama bundler. There are more than 300 Mexicans and at least one American, maybe two dead because the Obama administration helped put guns in the hands of Mexican cartels. When Obama couldn’t get the Dream Act through Congress, not only did he decide not to enforce the law, he illegally decided to hand out work permits, something he doesn’t have the power to do. After the Supreme Court didn’t give him everything he wanted in his dispute with Arizona, he declared a de facto amnesty in that state to punish it by refusing to pick up illegal aliens captured by the police.
These are the actions of a wannabe Hugh Chavez, not the actions of a man who belongs in the White House. This is not a man who’s worthy of the presidency
Did you think this was so good that you needed to post it twice? Evidence-free assertions are always just evidence-free assertions.
You got nuttin', pal.
Actually, one can go to Harvard's Law's website and read the requirements for graduating magna cum laude now, which, you'll find is graduating in the top 10%.
http://www.law.harvard.edu/current/careers/ocs/employers/about-our-students/grading.html
And wouldn't you know it? That top ten percent figure is exactly the figure that pretty much every law schools that award Latin honors have used as the cutoff for graduating magna cum laude for decades and decades.
And if you're convinced they've changed that since Obama graduated, and that in his day they just awarded diplomas "with great honor" as some kind of feel good esteem builder to the poor dumb affirmative action negros at the bottom of the class because because Obama couldn't possibly have been in the top ten percent of the Harvard Law class of 1990, why you can go to their library and get the 1990 course catalog right off the shelf and read it yourself.
And, hey, would totally be a fruitful use of your time. Because clearly, if Harvard was diluting the value of an honor that would otherwise be worth, quite literally, tens of thousands of dollars in additional salary potential for the other members of his class, every single one of the people whose honors were so diluted would totally just keep their mouths shut about it for two decades and never complain, because that's how Harvard Law grads are. Noncompetitive, not at all status-conscious or interested in the way little things might affect their earning potential. Bunch of far left long haired Quaker peaceniks, really.
Jesus Screaming Christ on a whole wheat cracker. The wingnut afterbirther refusal to believe that the words "magna cum laude" have some well understood meaning vis a vis grades and are, instead, some kind of meaningless pat on the head simply because they appear on Barack Hussein Obama's HLS diploma and undermine one of their most dearly cherished fundamentally racist theories is the single most perfect example of their ability to totally disassociate from reality when his name is mentioned.
Nice kick to Mr. Mitty's nuts, Steve. Well done.
As I emailed Rachel last week: Romney will probably release ALL his returns sometime in MID-OCTOBER. His army of tax lawyers undoubtedly made sure they contained nothing illegal, as he said. Thus he would turn the issue in his favor .. the October surprise!
Not sure that will work. Romney could then be asked to allow what he released to be compared to the IRS copies, and if they didn't match, that could be a big problem.
If he waits until then, the idea that he's a shady sneaky character who won't reveal even the normal amount of information will be solidly ensconced in the public consciousness... if it isn't already.
Dude, rich people don't hire tax lawyers to "make sure their returns contain nothing illegal." Rich people hire tax lawyers to write opinion letters to cover their butts from charges of criminal tax evasion. That's what tax lawyers do. The people who set up dodgy tax shelters pay some guy from Winkin Blinkin and Nodd to opine that there's a "good faith basis" for believing the shelter is legal and then, when the IRS disallows the deduction, you have to pay back taxes and interest, but you avoid penalties and criminal liability.
Speaking of sanitized. There is going to be so much grease to clean up when the Odumbas leave, it might be a good idea to buy stock in some de-greaser manufacturing companies. The stock will go through the roof when all that de-greaser is shipped to the white house.
Obama_is_a_Loser, you're racist scum and have nothing constructive to add. Your banning will be sweet.
And Republicans just can't seem to stop whining about their racist image. I wonder where that images comes from?
your first class scum and don't know what u are talking about grow up u write like a 6 yr old
It can, and should, be his "invented the Internet," the thing that can't go unmentioned within two sentences of any conversation on Romney from now until the end of time. Romney - who won't release his tax returns because of those off shore and Swiss bank accounts...
It should be assumed and stated as fact that there is something untoward in those filings that he can't show us and let people's imaginations run wild - and it should be a question in the debates.
He hasn't released one full year's returns yet.
I expect that an Obama SuperPac is going to raise the issue from time to time and the tax returns are going to be a part of the ad.
Barack Obama doesn’t respect democracy, the rule of law, the American people, or the office he holds. He is unfit to be the President of the United States and that’s become clearer by the day.
Obama broke the law to cheat people — rightfully owed money by Chevrolet and GM — out of their cash so he could help his union allies instead. His administration funneled more than 1/2 a billion dollars to Solyndra, even though it knew the company was likely to go under to help out George Kaiser who was a major Obama bundler. There are more than 300 Mexicans and at least one American, maybe two dead because the Obama administration helped put guns in the hands of Mexican cartels. When Obama couldn’t get the Dream Act through Congress, not only did he decide not to enforce the law, he illegally decided to hand out work permits, something he doesn’t have the power to do. After the Supreme Court didn’t give him everything he wanted in his dispute with Arizona, he declared a de facto amnesty in that state to punish it by refusing to pick up illegal aliens captured by the police.
These are the actions of a wannabe Hugh Chavez, not the actions of a man who belongs in the White House. This is not a man who’s worthy of the presidency
I am not going to even attempt to answer all your Republican/Fox News talking points. They have all been discussed in other threads on other days. Use search.
Second, if you seriously think those actions make Obama unfit, then how does lying to the people in order to get us involved in a war to look for fictitious WMD's and the loss of thousands of lives for NOTHING fit in your ideas about unfit?
The iMITTator will not disclose the fact he paid nearly zero taxes. He will not provide any real or direct response to questions precisely because he does not have to. The press will not press him and he can spit whatever he wants to out of the word-salad spinner and never actually be held accountable. Thanks to Faux News, the GOP and Sarah the Half-Bagger Queen!
Romney's tax returns, if he were to disclose them, may not show anything hidden, illegal or different from the one return made public. But the these returns may reveal many more years of 15% paid--a number that outraged many and is far lower than many less wealthy Americans are paying--because he has access to tactics that only the super-rich can can employ.
Why dont the dems just start intimating that there are foul things in his tax returns. i.e. Sources tell us that the Romney tax returns show that he made a bazillion dollars in 2009 and paid no taxes and even claimed his dog as a dependant'. Romney will then come out and declare "Thats not true!!" and we will say "Prove it".
Dems are not going to let the issue die. It probably will come up in the presidential debates and that could put new life into the issue.
How much fun would it be if the Democrats let this subject totally drop from the public consciousness luring the Romney camp into a sense of victory and in October, during the debates when many more people are paying attention, squish him like the lying bug he is.
You know I was wondering about this sort of thing myself. While it would be bad form for some "artificial" returns to come out it would force the Romney camp to release the real ones to prove the others were fakes.
I would like to know if there is another issue that Romney will not or has not flip flopped on like this. He has flipped on everything under the sun but his tax returns. Must be a lot to hide.
I find it interesting that Romney states "Democrat [sic] operatives" will "twist and distort" the information. Which only indicates there is indeed something there to "twist and/or distort" as he states... Yet it's all Democrats fault his tax returns can be used against him whilst applying for the job of running the Country. You know, because, how he handles his tax free money oversea's is really non of our concern. Right ! Two words for former Gov. Romney ... BITCH PLEASE !!!
You realize, of course, that if Romney gets away with this, no Republican will ever again release their tax returns. The GOP is in the process of trashing financial transparency as they have so many other fine, old American values. If Romney wins, it's all over. Even if he loses, unless it's by a landslide, he'll have given cover to the most corrupt who would run for office. Hey, I can stonewall because Romney didn't have to release his returns and it wouldn't be fair.
I feel sorry for conservatives now. I have really begun to pity Republican voters for being asked to swallow the largest bowl of crap for a candidate I've seen them force fed to date.
Republican voters not only have to place their candidates secret tax returns in the LET'S IGNORE THIS Bin, but also his unexplored governorship, his unexplained Bain years, his unannounced investments in Stericycle, his unknown offshore accounts, his undetailed overseas jobs record, his unrevealed domestic and foreign policies, his unparalleled lack of diplomacy, and his magic underwear religion they once swore was a cult.
When the right said Anyone But Obama, they truly and totally meant it and are planning to sell their own country to some guy with an R on his voter card, a guy that would have put anything on his voter card if he thought it would help him win...
Poor America. Rich Romney.
Is he really as stupid as he sounds when he speaks?
Did he write a thesis? What was the topic? I would like to read it.
Birth Certificate?
Why was he hanging around an avowed communist so much (Frank M. Davis)?
I want to see all records involved with the house Obama bought in Chicago. Somethings just not right there.
With his lust for political advancement, Obama joins forces with political genius David Axelrod. State Senator Barack Obama also begins perfecting the art of voting ‘present’ during Senate votes. As future opponent Hillary Clinton publicized, Obama voted ‘present’ 129 different times in the IL Senate. As the campaigning Obama explained to the American people, voting ‘present’ was merely a political tactic used in Illinois by Chicago’s Machine politicians. It allowed a politician to dangle their vote in front of both sides, either pushing for changes to the bill or waiting for each side to outbid each other with political ‘incentives’.
Uh, oh. We got a live one here.
Yes disgusted, but he is blissfully happy.
His fingers may be live, but his brain is dead.
He/she/it acts like an outright Klansman, but I will be surprised if this site bans him...maybe a slap-on-the-wrist token day or two.
Mitt Romney needs to quit supporting the campaign of Barack Hussein Obama. It seems that Mitt Romney and his staff lack courage, as did John McCain, to take on a Black Marxist with a Muslim name. It is time for Mitt Romney to shed all vestiges of Political Correctness, White Guilt, and Islamic Sensitivity. Mitt Romney must start acting like the Presidential candidate who is capable of saving the United States of America and all of Western Civilization from Barack Obama, George Soros, and all on the Progressive Far Left who are supporting Barack Obama.
Could it be that after Mitt released 23 years of returns to McCain in 2008, the Feds reached agreement with Switzerland to get fuller disclosure of offshore investors? Did Mitt on his 2009 return take advantage of the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Initiative to get amnesty for prior failures to report offshore holdings? If so, he could now "retroactively" say he did nothing illegal (since he got amnesty), but if he released 2009 or any of the prior returns, the facts would be quite available for voters to "twist and distort".
Of course, this might not be the case at all, but in the absence of seeing his returns, it's the theory that I'm going to run with...
Face it the guy has no integrity....tying his dog to the roof of his car, showing his homophobic side...pinning someone down and cutting their hair off. Funny how he does not remember that incident but adds that if it did happen it was just a boyish prank. Wanting to get rid of Planned Parenthood which has helped so many women over the years myself included. The list goes on and on. Is there any question why he does not want to release his returns?? He has something to hide....scumbag! It disgusts me that he is now spending most of his free time in my state of NH. If the very conservative Union Leader is asking him to disclose his returns there is no question more of his republican cronies will be too. How bad is it that your own party questions your integrity Mitt. I say go back to your home state wherever that might be...it seems you can't remember where that is either!