Romney attacks his opponent for not releasing more tax returns ...in 2002!

[Landslide Lyndon]

LOL! What an arrogant prick.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/romney-campaign-attacked-opponent-for-refusing-to

Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney has seen pressure mount from both Democrats and Republican pundits to release his tax returns. Romney has maintained that he is “simply not enthusiastic” about giving Democrats “hundreds or thousands of more pages to pick through, distort, and lie about.”

But in 2002, during his run for Governor Romney attacked his opponent Shannon O’Brien for not releasing her husband’s tax returns.

Romney said he declined to release his tax returns on a “principled position” saying it one debate “I value my privacy.” The Romney campaign accused O’Brien, who released her tax returns every year since 1998, of being disingenuous by releasing her but not her husband's returns, a former lobbyist who had worked with Enron.

Romney spokesman and current top Romney aide Eric Fehnrstrom claimed O’Brien was attempting to hide possibly embarrassing finances from voters.

"Her hands aren't clean. She can't claim to be disclosing anything until she discloses the returns of her husband, the Enron lobbyist,” Fehnrstrom said. “Under Shannon O'Brien, the state Pension Board lost millions by buying Enron stock when it was collapsing -- what is she hiding?"

The O’Brien campaign called the charge a “desperate attack” and did not release any returns.

[Beet]

LOL. This needs to be aired widely. It's not even her tax returns, but her husband's. Of course if Obama did this Romney would accuse him of picking on poor, poor Ann Romney.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

A husband who lobbied for Enron while she was investing and losing pensioners money in Enron?


Yea, totally comparable.


I should point out that O'Brien herself only released four years herself and that wasn't issue. The only place where you would have a case for hypocrisy would be if he demanded she release 10 years.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I should point out that O'Brien herself only released four years herself and that wasn't issue. The only place where you would have a case for hypocrisy would be if he demanded she release 10 years.

Four years would be twice as much as what Mitt has promised to release, and only a third of what his father released.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I should point out that O'Brien herself only released four years herself and that wasn't issue. The only place where you would have a case for hypocrisy would be if he demanded she release 10 years.

Four years would be twice as much as what Mitt has promised to release, and only a third of what his father released.

Four years wouldn't be enough to satisfy the demands currently on Romney, though. They want 12 to get at the intricate tax returns from 1999-2002, when the recession knocked out severa Bain companies so they can connect Romney directly with job losses.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

They will then trace down workers at those companies and put them on the TV in October to say "Mittens Ruined My Life" like Teddy Kennedy did in 1994.


That is why Romney hasn't released them and probably never will.

[Maxwell]

They will then trace down workers at those companies and put them on the TV in October to say "Mittens Ruined My Life" like Teddy Kennedy did in 1994.


That is why Romney hasn't released them and probably never will.

but... they already did that?

[stegosaurus]

Mitt Romney is a hypocrite, sure. That doesn't mean that he didn't pay the legally required amount of taxes.

I've yet to understand why the Democrats are accusing Romney of tax fraud and whatever else, and then demanding to see his tax returns. If Romney is guilty of some sort of wrong doing, then its not going to show in the tax returns, obviously. The Democrats are just looking for political red meat, as NC Yankee implied. Stone-walling is Mitt Romney's specialty and, for once, it's actually the proper thing for them to be doing.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

They will then trace down workers at those companies and put them on the TV in October to say "Mittens Ruined My Life" like Teddy Kennedy did in 1994.


That is why Romney hasn't released them and probably never will.

but... they already did that?

And Mitt responded by saying he worked at the Olympics and thus wasn't there. They would rely on ignorance of the intricacies of business to make it look like he is lying through clever use of what they find in the returns from 2001 and 2002. October would then become a torrent of such ads.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

All of this that has happened is just the chess match setting up just that kind of October. They have wanted to "Kill Romney" since the beginning and think the Kennedy way was the best. The Bain attacks directly, the demands for taxes, accusations of felonies and tax evasion/avoidance is meant to try and make Romney decide the current situation is worse then the October onslaught and thus convince him to relent.

There is no release them, take the hit and let it pass. If he releases them, Obama will destroy Romney with what he finds. They don't care that it was a recession, that Bain kept many of these companies afloat for many years longer then would have otherwise been the case. They are counting on the people not caring either and passing judgement on Romney simply for being the guy who signed the pink slip, or the guy responsible for it being signed. 

[Landslide Lyndon]

Yeah, politics is a bitch. Tell that to presidents Gore and Kerry.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Gore was the perpetrator in 2000, trying to get people to vote against Bush with late revelation of the DUI. He failed.

[Landslide Lyndon]

Gore was the perpetrator in 2000, trying to get people to vote against Bush with late revelation of the DUI. He failed.

Oh yeah, he was horrible. Especially that bit about inventing the internet.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Gore was the perpetrator in 2000, trying to get people to vote against Bush with late revelation of the DUI. He failed.

Oh yeah, he was horrible. Especially that bit about inventing the internet.

I think one could find better reasons for judging him so, but whatever works.

[Stranger in a strange land]

Mitt Romney is a hypocrite, sure. That doesn't mean that he didn't pay the legally required amount of taxes.

I've yet to understand why the Democrats are accusing Romney of tax fraud and whatever else, and then demanding to see his tax returns. If Romney is guilty of some sort of wrong doing, then its not going to show in the tax returns, obviously. The Democrats are just looking for political red meat, as NC Yankee implied. Stone-walling is Mitt Romney's specialty and, for once, it's actually the proper thing for them to be doing.

Do you see the contradiction here? The more Romney stonewalls, the more it looks like he has something to hide. This isn't helping him.

For comparison, Kerry's stonewalling response to the Swiftboat ads (refusing to dignify them with a response) actually ended up lending credence to the Swiftboaters' claims, even though they were built up from nothing and had no factual basis.

[stegosaurus]

Mitt Romney is a hypocrite, sure. That doesn't mean that he didn't pay the legally required amount of taxes.

I've yet to understand why the Democrats are accusing Romney of tax fraud and whatever else, and then demanding to see his tax returns. If Romney is guilty of some sort of wrong doing, then its not going to show in the tax returns, obviously. The Democrats are just looking for political red meat, as NC Yankee implied. Stone-walling is Mitt Romney's specialty and, for once, it's actually the proper thing for them to be doing.

Do you see the contradiction here? The more Romney stonewalls, the more it looks like he has something to hide. This isn't helping him.

For comparison, Kerry's stonewalling response to the Swiftboat ads (refusing to dignify them with a response) actually ended up lending credence to the Swiftboaters' claims, even though they were built up from nothing and had no factual basis.

That depends on your point of view, I suppose. What Team Obama seems to be missing is that most people do not have a point of view regarding Romney's taxes; they are more concerned with the future of their own tax rates to worry about Romney's. The more the Obama campaign presses this issue, the more they appear distracted from the issues that people will be focused on in November.

The Swiftboat accusations did not harm Kerry nearly as much as the "I voted for it before I voted against it"gaffe that Karl Rove and Co. turned into a very effective message against him.    I believe that Kerry handled his respective situation perfectly as well and it would have been worse for him if he had gotten tangled up fighting something petty and ridiculous. Ultimately, Kerry lost because he was a poor candidate and Romney will likely lose for the same reason - nothing to do with his tax rate.

[Napoleon]

Literally no one cares about O'Brien's tax returns.

[All Along The Watchtower]

You'd think the coldly calculating Mittbot would have cleaned up at least some of what is his truly remarkable financial situation before seeking the Presidency.