This will not stand - Romney refuses to release tax returns

Posted by William A. Jacobson
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 8:30am

We keep hearing about how we should not nominate a candidate who is not disciplined and will create needless general election distractions .

This certainly will be a major distraction, Romney Says He Won’t Release Tax Returns:

“I doubt it,” Mr. Romney said, according to a transcript of the interview provided by NBC News. “I will provide all the financial info, which is an extraordinary pile of documents which show investments and so forth.”

“But you won’t do the tax returns?” asked Chuck Todd, host of “The Daily Rundown.”

“I don’t intend to release the tax returns. I don’t,” Mr. Romney responded.

A spokesman for President Obama‘s re-election campaign blasted Mr. Romney and questioned whether he had something to hide in his finances.

“Why does Governor Romney feel like he can play by a different set of rules?” said Ben LaBolt, a spokesman for the Obama campaign. “What is it that he doesn’t want the American people to see? Governor Romney, who has favored secrecy over openness time after time, should live up to the same standard of disclosure his father and others set.”

Just what we don’t need is a months long battle over whether a nominee will release tax returns, which simply will give Democrats another excuse to play class warfare.

By contrast, Newt pledged to release his tax returns if he becomes the nominee, and I presume all the other candidates would do so as well.

It’s a no win situation. If Romney doesn’t release the returns, the issue will dominate the general election media narrative. If he does release the returns under pressure, he will look weak and like a flip-flopper.

And it already has started:

Romney followed up on the tax return question during an avail in Lancaster, N.H. Juana Summers sends his answer:

“I can tell you we follow the tax laws, and that if there is an opportunity to save taxes we like anybody else in that country follow that opportunity. But we don’t have any current plans to release tax returns, but never say never. We’ll see what the future holds. We’ve released of course all the information required by law which is a pretty extensive release. But down the road we’ll see what happens if I’m the nominee. I don’t have any immediate plans to release tax returns but that may change in the future.”

The returns eventually will be released. I’ll bet you … oh never mind..