For months, Mitt Romney was effectively Bartleby the Scrivener when it came to tax returns. Governor, why won’t you disclose the materials to the public? “I prefer not to.”
This morning, Romney went to the friendly confines of “Fox & Friends” to try out a new line. Igor Volsky posted the clip.
“The Obama people keep on wanting more and more and more,” the GOP candidate said. “More things to pick through, more things for their opposition research to try make a mountain out of and to distort and to be dishonest about.”
I’m delighted Romney is now saying something in response to the question, but I’m having a tough time wrapping my head around this one. He’s going to keep his tax returns secret and hidden from public view because … Obama might find stuff?
Isn’t this effectively the same thing as saying, “I can’t release my tax returns; I’m running for office for Pete’s sake”? Complicating matters, Romney also said on Fox that he shouldn’t be compared to other presidential candidates, but rather, compared to other candidates’ spouses. “John Kerry ran for president,” Romney said. “You know, his wife, who has hundreds of millions of dollars, she never released her tax returns. Somehow, this wasn’t an issue.” Um, governor? Teresa Heinz Kerry wasn’t a candidate for the nation’s highest office; you are. And in 2004, John Kerry made 20 years’ worth of returns available.
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