Warring over tax returns
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eugene-robinson-warring-over-tax-returns/2012/08/06/73fa40ec-dff6-11e1-8fc5-a7dcf1fc161d_story.html
By Eugene Robinson, Monday, August 6, 6:11 PM
The Washington Post Mitt Romneys defiant secrecy about his personal finances looks like a cross Republicans will have to bear all the way to Election Day. To put it mildly, the burden seems to chafe.
Apoplexy is not the tone politicians generally seek to project. Yet there was GOP chief Reince Priebus on ABCs This Week, calling Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid a dirty liar for his claim about how little Romney may have paid in taxes. There was Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on CNNs State of the Union, saying of Reid, I think hes lying. There was Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) on CBS Face the Nation, decrying a reckless and slanderous charge by Harry Reid.
It was a coordinated Sunday morning display of righteous indignation, a pageant of scenery-chewing. But in making such a show of denouncing Dirty Harrys foul calumny, all Republicans succeeded in doing was draw attention to Romneys stubborn refusal to release more than a years worth of tax returns (okay, one year and sort of a second) and guarantee more coverage of Reids claims. snip
But they cant prove its an untrue attack unless Romney does what conservative commentators and Republican insiders have been urging: Release the tax returns, as Americans have expected of every presidential candidate since, well, since Romneys father set the standard in 1968.