Remember: Romney released 23 years of tax returns to McCain

[berni_mccoy]

It is very possible that Reid's Bain source was privy to those returns if he was in any way involved with Romney's campaign. Furthermore, if most of Romney's "income" since 2000 were residuals from Bain, or if basis points on his equity or other assets acquired through Bain, then it is very likely he still needed accounting information from Bain and someone there was involved in working with Romney on his returns.

As I said earlier this summer, the Obama campaign *knows* something. That is why they have kept this issue hot and pushed hard on Romney to release his returns. And the harder they've pushed, the harder he's resisted. Romney has something in his returns that is so bad, most Americans couldn't bring themselves to vote for him if they knew what was in them.

I strongly believe Reid would not make that information public if he didn't have the evidence to back it up. As Itchinjim pointed out, "A good lawyer never asks a question he doesn't already know the answer to...and Obama is a good lawyer". Reid is a good lawyer too.

[dkf]

1. Reid has no evidence. It's hearsay based on a one call he got from a Bain investor.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/31/harry-reid-romney-taxes_n_1724027.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

Saying he had "no problem with somebody being really, really wealthy," Reid sat up in his chair a bit before stirring the pot further. A month or so ago, he said, a person who had invested with Bain Capital called his office.

"Harry, he didn't pay any taxes for 10 years," Reid recounted the person as saying.

"He didn't pay taxes for 10 years! Now, do I know that that's true? Well, I'm not certain," said Reid. "But obviously he can't release those tax returns. How would it look?

Tellingly, neither Reid nor his office would reveal who the investor was, making it impossible to verify if the accusation is true. And as his quote makes clear, he's uncertain if the information is accurate.

[get the red out]

3. Romney is certainly ducking the issue

He does nothing at all but lend credibility to what Senator Reid said, whether he had his facts nailed down or not.

[dkf]

6. Well McCain could put this to rest without Romney having to release the returns.

Reid really put himself out there.

If I'm Romney I would let the Dems stew and make all sorts of accusations. It wil only make the real returns look better and McCain has enough credibility to vouch if he needs to.

[Angry Dragon]

9. ...........

[morningfog]

10. Why do you keep shifting the burden away from Romney?

Reid, now McCain, is who should release Romneys returns?

Do you think the Dems "accusations" are completely unfounded?

[dkf]

17. It was Romney's burden til Reid stepped in to it.

It's beginning to feel like a trap to me.

[morningfog]

18. Reid has nothing to lose. He said what he was told.

He obviously finds the source credible enough to repeat the claim. It is not Reid's burden. It is still on Mitt.

Don't you want Mitt to release his returns? Don't you want to know what he is hiding?

[JHB]

27. It's still Romney's burden.

This is an election, not a debating society.

In 2004 the burden should have been on the Swiftboat Liars. It wasn't because it was such a huge lie the Kerry people didn't think they needed to push the burden back on them, and so it never fell back on them.

Reid isn't running for president, Romney is. If the Democrats keep pushing the burden back on him every time he tries to squirm out from it, then he's stuck with it.

[Kingofalldems]

15. I was suspicious before but now it is obvious

[morningfog]

16. SOOOO obvious.

Amazing really.

[frylock]

25. yep

[Marr]

32. In what universe could McCain put this to rest?

The Fox universe is not the real one, I'm afraid. Yank your head out of it and think for a moment.

A presidential candidate refuses to release his tax returns, and you think the word of another politician from his own party would exonerate him?

Well shit, why would any politician release tax returns if they could just have a pal assert publicly that it's all A-OK?

[SunsetDreams]

33. The GOP, Romney and

their supporters are fooling no one.

[apples and oranges]

34. Do you really think they even looked at the returns?

They never wanted Romney. They certainly weren't going to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars researching hundreds of pages of documents from Romney. McCain wanted LIEberman, and his people convinced him to go with Palin. I don't think they did a serious vet of any of their potentials (remember all the wheels falling off the bus jokes?).

[morningfog]

4. It must carry a lot of truth. Mitt

is sweating bullets and stonewalling. The more he digs in, the more accurate Reid's claims are likely to be. Just release it Mitt, and get on with the campaign.

[berni_mccoy]

5. Just because Reid is only giving out *that* bit of information...

doesn't mean that's all he's got. Reid knows the repercussions of making a statement like that without something else coming out to validate it. Dana Bash's verification is just the tip of the iceberg.

[dkf]

8. Dana Bash's source is someone close to Reid who is vouching that the investor talked to Harry Reid.

"But I did speak, I just have to tell you, that I did speak to one source who's very close to Senator Reid who claims to also know who this Bain investor is that Reid spoke with, and insists that this is a credible person and this person if we knew the name we would understand that they would have the authority and the ability to know about Romney's tax returns. Whether we'll find it out ever, who knows. But they're doing this on purpose so that this is the discussion. "


http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021065576

It's not independent confirmation of the original info.

[morningfog]

13. But it is Reid and another doubling down that the original source is legit.

[Angry Dragon]

14. I only hope you are as concerned when the republican politicians

claim that Obama was not born in this country, is a Muslim, is a socialist,
does not care about this country, how he wants to take guns away
and all the other claims they seem to make

[dkf]

19. Sigh. See how the comparisons work?

That is the problem right there.

[Angry Dragon]

21. No

Obama has released his tax returns ...... Willard has not
Obama has released his birth certificate ....... Willard has not
Obama has said he is a Christian ......... Willard has said his religion is off limits
Obama has said he is not a socialist ......... Willard does not know what he is


How can we compare when Willard will not release items so we can compare??
Willard says to trust him but will not give us information so we can.


Harry Reid is free to acuse Willard of anything he wants, Willard is free to prove Harry is lying.
The ball is in Willard's court.............

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

23. Her concern trolling is nothing new. It's been going on for years. Just look

at the "not a mosque not located at Ground Zero" threads and the birth certificate ones.

[mazzarro]

7. So you expect this person to reveal rMoney's personal tax information

and lay open to the possibility of a law suit?

[CabCurious]

12. It isn't about the accusation per se

Republicans can focus on Reid until blue in the face, but all it does it highlight the underlying doubt.

Why won't Romney release his returns?

He shared it with the Mccain campaign to get a VP nomination, which tells us everything.

[dkf]

20. Oh for goodness sakes that is the same thing the Birthers were saying.

And it's true...if you release the documents you can put all the untrue accusations to rest.

Obama played it well. Romney may be doing the same.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

22. Oh for fuck's sake. Why does everything you post read like RW concern trolling? nt

[frylock]

26. i think you know the answer to that question

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

30. We need a "rhetorical"

emoticon.

[morningfog]

2. Agreed. I will add that Romney thinks

McCain is 23 times more deserving than the entire country. Why was he willing to defer and honor McCain's request, but feel he doesn't owe it to the American people? Shame on Mitt.

[dmosh42]

11. I wonder if McCain's staff or McCain actually said they saw Romney's tax filings? Or, maybe,....

just more of "you can take that to be the truth", from Romney. We all know he's a prolific liar.

[KharmaTrain]

24. "So They Say"...

I've been real dubious about the 23 years of tax return meme for several reasons. Firstly is that he may have submitted paperwork but how do we know those were tax returns and not financial disclosure forms...OR...that those were incomplete returns with schedules missing.

More important is the old "consider the source". This is a team that was a clusterfuck...that didn't vet Mooselini so how can you think they really did a good lookthrough on whatever materials Willard presented. It's very possible there was enough questionable material in what he did submit to raise red flags but I think in the end Willard's caustic personality did more to doom his chances than his taxes...and his lack of cred with the great unhinged. Why they ended up with Grifterella.

I agree that you don't ask a question you don't have an answer to...and there could be someone from inside Bain who was burned and providing some nice dirt.

Bottom line...the only way to answer all the questions is to disclose the taxes! Methinks if he does that we'll have even more questions...

[DevonRex]

28. 23 years is weird, right? Unless you have to make

up for the last 10. So you go further and further back to prove you paid taxes before that decade of nonpayment.

[taught_me_patience]

29. The leaker has to be McCain himself

because McCain could easily come out and say "Mitt gave our campaign 23 years of taxes and rest assured he paid taxes every year". McCain's silence is deafening.

[berni_mccoy]

31. Heh, I think you nailed it.

Remember when McCain came out and said there was nothing 'disqualifying' Romney... but he didn't say it was politically damaging. In fact, when pressed if Romney paid no taxes...:

"I can personally vouch for the fact that there was nothing in his tax returns that would in any way be disqualifying for him to be a candidate."

When pressed about whether Romney might be shielding his returns because he paid no taxes, McCain refused to discuss such specifics.

"Please, I am not going to get into that kind of conversation," he said. "All I can tell you, and I can tell you again, is there was nothing disqualifying in his tax returns. And that is a fact."