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You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / And the truth well you know there’s no stopping it

And the truth well you know there’s no stopping it

by DougJ|  July 15, 20123:25 pm| 124 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Election 2012

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Josh Marshall’s been beating the drum about how awful Mitt Romney’s tax returns are. PoisonYourMind finds Rahm (!) nailing it:

He’s given us one year, but he gave John McCain 23 years of tax returns in 2008. And after they saw those, McCain’s people went with Sarah Palin.

Steve Schmidt — who’s on teevee all the time and knows what’s in there (from managing McCain’s campaign — hasn’t called for Romney to release his taxes. He probably never will.

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124Comments

  1. 1.

    NonyNony

    July 15, 2012 at 3:29 pm

    And Bill Kristol has now said that he thinks Romney should release the tax forms.

    Which means you just know that it’s the worst possible move that Romney could ever make.

  2. 2.

    suzanne

    July 15, 2012 at 3:30 pm

    Doesn’t that tell you everything you needed to know right there?

  3. 3.

    Maude

    July 15, 2012 at 3:31 pm

    Obama says he won’t say sorry to Romney.
    Now onto the repetitive why won’t he show us his tax forms?
    Obama may start that this week.

  4. 4.

    Hunter Gathers

    July 15, 2012 at 3:32 pm

    The word ‘clusterfuck’ is going to defined as ‘Mitt Romney’s 2012 Campaign for President’ if him and his people don’t get in front of this. If this shit is still going on by the time the conventions kick off (not out of the question, BTW), I don’t see how Romney breaks 45 percent.

  5. 5.

    r€nato

    July 15, 2012 at 3:33 pm

    If there’s anything bad in there, he should have released them by now. So that the reporters could write their stories and get this over with so that it’s old news by September and everyone has moved on to talking about whatever else.

    But it must be REALLY bad, because they are thinking that they can stonewall this right through Election Day, and pay whatever price is to be paid for that.

    I don’t know how they think they can keep from releasing those tax returns.

    Maybe in the Reagan 80s or the Clinton 90s, you could have sold a vulture capitalist as presidential timber. But Romney is exactly the worst candidate for anyone to run in this economy… except for those other sacks of shit that were in the primary.

  6. 6.

    r€nato

    July 15, 2012 at 3:35 pm

    @NonyNony: I agree. And I don’t think he can get away with not releasing them at all. I think he will be forced to release them by September, which will be horrendous timing. Just in time for all those disengaged voters to be paying attention, plenty of time to keep talking about those returns right up until Election Day, and then the fallout from the returns themselves, and then layered on top of that the shaming for having waited so long.

  7. 7.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    July 15, 2012 at 3:35 pm

    @Maude: I guess Bob Schieffer was plaintively asked Axelrod or Plouffe “whatever happened to hope and change”? (and wound up in a quickly made Romney web ad for his troubles) I’d point out to Mr Schieffer that Democrats actually fighting fire with fire instead of bringing snickerdoodles and lemonade to a gun fight is a change, and one some of us have been hoping for for years.

  8. 8.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    July 15, 2012 at 3:36 pm

    I’m betting there’s illegal income from a pedophilic slavery ring.

    HEY ANONYMOUS! GET ROMNEY’S TAX FORMS AND RELEASE THEM!

  9. 9.

    Legalize

    July 15, 2012 at 3:36 pm

    @Maude:
    Presumably. I envision spots with clip after clip of GOPers saying exactly what Team O has been saying.

    And is Willard REALLY going to the Olympics for a couple of weeks? I cannot believe that.

  10. 10.

    WereBear

    July 15, 2012 at 3:37 pm

    Typical Republican. They obsess about sex, and it’s always money that trips them up.

    I’m reminded of that scandal with some Republican Senator or something; his constituents shrugged off the mistress, but the fact that he had her on the payroll as his “secretary” is what really brought him down.

    Can’t remember any names; and there’s so many Republican Senate mistress scandals that the search engines are no help.

  11. 11.

    r€nato

    July 15, 2012 at 3:38 pm

    @Legalize: Why, his wife has a horse competing in dressage.

    Remember in 2004 when Kerry was pilloried as a snobby effete elitist for *windsurfing*?

    Well, Ann Romney is not running for president, but still… dressAHJ? Nothing elitist about that.

  12. 12.

    NonyNony

    July 15, 2012 at 3:38 pm

    @Hunter Gathers:

    The word ‘clusterfuck’ is going to defined as ‘Mitt Romney’s 2012 Campaign for President’ if him and his people don’t get in front of this

    I think if they do get in front if it they’re going to get run over.

    They needed to anticipate it, oh let’s say 4 freaking years ago when they knew they were going to be running for the 2012 election. That’s when they needed to “get in front of it” and deal with it.

    To be honest I think this comes from Romney only ever winning one general election and only ever losing one general election. And the loss was to Ted Kennedy, which means he could just console himself with the idea that he was never going to beat a popular incumbent like Kennedy.

    If he’d stood in a few more elections in his time he would be more deeply vetted and this stuff would be less fresh. He also would have more experience on how to deal with people who don’t just ask how high when he screams jump.

  13. 13.

    BGinCHI

    July 15, 2012 at 3:42 pm

    This is NOT the conversation Romney and the national GOP wanted to be having this summer.

    Coattails? What coattails?

  14. 14.

    Hunter Gathers

    July 15, 2012 at 3:43 pm

    @NonyNony: Either Romney’s an idiot, or the people he pays for political advice are idiots. Either way, unless he bites the bullet and releases the taxes, this shit won’t stop until election day. And they might just be dumb enough to let that happen.

  15. 15.

    eric

    July 15, 2012 at 3:44 pm

    two things: Obama has neutralized Bain as a Romney positive and Romney himself neutralized his time as governor as a positive. That is a big takeaway from this cluster of fuck.

    Second, I will say it again: i am betting that there are pro-choice charitable donations somewhere on those taxes when romney was trying to prove to northeastern elites that he was a different sort of republican back before the republicans went all in on the paleo conservatism

  16. 16.

    wrb

    July 15, 2012 at 3:45 pm

    @Snarki, child of Loki:

    The pedophilic slavery ring is obvious from how his campaign is reacting. They’ve let those kitties out of the croaker sack. So there must be something worse that the returns would reveal.

    The offshore accounts shelter the income from pedophilic
    snuff films in which dancing horses were mistreated?

    Gotta be something that bad

  17. 17.

    Rommie

    July 15, 2012 at 3:46 pm

    @r€nato: It’s why Romney cruising in a powerboat is *very* bad optics in essentially any of the Great Lakes states. Us folks up here KNOW who owns and sails those kind of boats when we see them on the water.
    They’re the rich assholes who leave giant wakes into the swimming beaches.

  18. 18.

    PaminBB

    July 15, 2012 at 3:48 pm

    N@NonyNony:

    Exactly, why is this the tax issue coming as a surprise? Romney’s taxes should have been squeeky clean since he started running for Prez in 2007. He could now have released a few years and been done with it. In that situation, he probably could get away with not releasing the earlier stuff that Steve Schmidt knows is toxic.

  19. 19.

    satanicpanic

    July 15, 2012 at 3:48 pm

    @NonyNony:

    He also would have more experience on how to deal with people who don’t just ask how high when he screams jump.

    That ad with him singing America the Beautiful was devasting because everyone knows that voice- it’s that asshole boss who has never had an audience with the power to laugh at him.

  20. 20.

    WereBear

    July 15, 2012 at 3:48 pm

    I’m basically thrilled/aghast at the way Citizens United actually orchestrated this FUBAR for them. Their own Frankenstein’s monster.

    With everyone playing “who’s got the craziest millionaire?” it was going to be a money runoff; the one with the most money was going to get the nomination. Their own actions had rigged it this way.

    They kept the economy in meltdown mode on purpose because President Obama had destroyed what foreign policy cred remained after the Bush admin debacle. They had to have someone with enough money AND an economic leg to stand on; a Mormon with no discernible sex drive and oodles of cash was a foregone conclusion.

    All because they don’t think there’s any such thing as financial malfeasance.

  21. 21.

    Amir Khalid

    July 15, 2012 at 3:48 pm

    @Hunter Gathers:
    I think the word “clusterfuck” is already defining Mitt’s 2012 candidacy. Here he is, running for president for the second time, and still unprepared to address a basic matter like his tax history. Still unable to say whether he was, or was not, at Bain Capital from 1999 to 2002. Still not at ease among regular people. Still unable to address voters’ concerns on their terms. Still unwilling to articulate his policy agenda. Still other examples for this list will no doubt occur to you.

  22. 22.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    July 15, 2012 at 3:48 pm

    @eric:

    two things: Obama has neutralized Bain as a Romney positive and Romney himself neutralized his time as governor as a positive. That is a big takeaway from this cluster of fuck.

    Yup. And what’s left is “The Man Who Saved The Olympics!” I’m a Romney-loather and if the Olympics disappeared, I don’t think I’d notice, but I doubt a lot of people are gonna vote for president based on that.

  23. 23.

    pseudonymous in nc

    July 15, 2012 at 3:49 pm

    @r€nato:

    If there’s anything bad in there, he should have released them by now. So that the reporters could write their stories and get this over with so that it’s old news by September

    If Mittens releases a decade’s worth of tax returns, it’ll take till September to finish reading them. We’re not just talking about personal returns: we’re talking about nested privately-held corporate entities where he was sole owner and shareholder, and whose monies may still be held under those names, albeit with Mittens’ signature as the only one authorised to access them.

  24. 24.

    ploeg

    July 15, 2012 at 3:49 pm

    @r€nato: I would totally have a beer with Ann Romney’s dressage horse. Even though the horse spends $10,000 a year on clothing.

  25. 25.

    beltane

    July 15, 2012 at 3:50 pm

    Mitt Romney is the only person in the world to have both a dead girl and a live boy in his tax returns and not in his bed.

  26. 26.

    WaterGirl

    July 15, 2012 at 3:50 pm

    @Legalize:

    And is Willard REALLY going to the Olympics for a couple of weeks? I cannot believe that.

    I’ve got money that says Willard thinks that makes him look presidential.

  27. 27.

    Hill Dweller

    July 15, 2012 at 3:51 pm

    The ‘McCain saw Willard’s taxes and chose Palin’ line is being hammered home by every Obama surrogate on TV.

    Obambi is kicking the shit out of Willard.

  28. 28.

    Zach

    July 15, 2012 at 3:51 pm

    Now it’s time for folks to switch from asking for the returns to asking specific questions about what we do know about his finances… like, “OK, Romney doesn’t want to release his tax returns, but he at least owes middle-class investors an explanation for his $100M IRA. Is he using financial tricks that are only available to the rich?” or “Fine. Don’t release your returns, but tell us how much money you have outside of the United States and why it’s invested in companies that are nothing but post-office boxes in Switzerland and on Grand Cayman?”

    The media’s asking the tax-return question (at least on the Sunday shows I watched), so we’ve already won there. People need to start getting specific.

  29. 29.

    FlipYrWhig

    July 15, 2012 at 3:51 pm

    I feel like Team Romney’s big strategy was going to be to use the Olympics to remind everyone that the best thing on his résumé was his role in the Salt Lake winter games, so that everyone would have a Pavlovian association between “sport,” flag-waving, and Mitt, which would carry him through the conventions, and then, wham, that Obama is such a downer, let’s go with Guy Smiley, CEO. Now that whole thing is shot full of holes. Mwahahaha.

  30. 30.

    Maude

    July 15, 2012 at 3:53 pm

    Romney in his boat is the poster child for climate change. He’s changing it all by himself.

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
    I read that Bob was startled by being in that ad. I doubt he liked it.

  31. 31.

    catclub

    July 15, 2012 at 3:53 pm

    Yglesias makes in interesting point about outsourcing. If it was so bad, why did Mitt not STOP Bain capital from doing it with his money? No one has argued that he was not sole stockholder.

    Another point he makes is that Obama is not really acting in any way to stop it. He is just pointing to it as something Romney’s companies have done. Romney has not had the sense to point out that GE and Microsoft outsource all the time. Does Obama have a gripe with them? It is not at all clear either GE or Microsoft would appreciate that notice.

    Obama has picked the target well.

  32. 32.

    IowaOldLady

    July 15, 2012 at 3:54 pm

    My guess is he used some sort of rich guy deductions and has paid no income tax since leaving Bain, despite having millions in income.

  33. 33.

    dmsilev

    July 15, 2012 at 3:54 pm

    @WaterGirl: Maybe he’ll behave like the Queen and stand for a minute *after* the national anthem is played.

  34. 34.

    Rekster

    July 15, 2012 at 3:55 pm

    In the SEC documents that the Boston Globe has discovered stated that they paid Mittens >$100,000. Well to me that only means that >$100,000 is the bottom line.

    I suspect that when the Tax Returns come out they will show that the “salary” he was paid during those years may well exceed the >$100k number and then “we the people” will want to find out how we can get one of those jobs where we don’t have to do any work and get paid possibly SEVEN figure salaries.

    Guess Mitt’s statement for “getting free stuff” only means those in the 1%. Not those dark skinned brothers and sisters in the NAACP!

  35. 35.

    Valdivia

    July 15, 2012 at 3:56 pm

    @FlipYrWhig:

    why did they think that? It makes absolutely no sense.

  36. 36.

    Amir Khalid

    July 15, 2012 at 3:56 pm

    @Legalize:
    The way things are going with Mitt, taking two weeks off might be the best thing for his campaign right now.

  37. 37.

    pseudonymous in nc

    July 15, 2012 at 3:57 pm

    @FlipYrWhig:

    I feel like Team Romney’s big strategy was going to be to use the Olympics to remind everyone that the best thing on his résumé was his role in the Salt Lake winter games

    Except that horse-dancing isn’t exactly top billing for NBC, not with their traditional demographic that demands three hours of teenage girls doing the splits in primetime.

  38. 38.

    beltane

    July 15, 2012 at 3:58 pm

    See, this is what happens when you piss on Bob Schieffer

    If Romney keeps this up Sally Quinn will retroactively exclude him from her soirees.

  39. 39.

    dmsilev

    July 15, 2012 at 3:58 pm

    @FlipYrWhig:

    I feel like Team Romney’s big strategy was going to be to use the Olympics to remind everyone that the best thing on his résumé was his role in the Salt Lake winter games, so that everyone would have a Pavlovian association between “sport,” flag-waving, and Mitt, which would carry him through the conventions, and then, wham, that Obama is such a downer, let’s go with Guy Smiley, CEO. Now that whole thing is shot full of holes. Mwahahaha.

    If he spends all two weeks in London,

    (a) We owe the British people a debt for taking him off our hands for such a long time
    (b) His campaign staff really is a bunch of morons and/or yes-men
    (c) Most of the time that he ends up on TV will be in company with his wife’s horse

  40. 40.

    WereBear

    July 15, 2012 at 3:59 pm

    @Valdivia: They see all of this as smoke and mirrors pageantry, anyway. Since they orchestrated Reagan’s press conferences to make him look Presidential, they figured it’s all that matters.

    W with a bullhorn; making a speech in New Orleans; landing a plane under a Mission Accomplished banner… everything is stage-managed. Never has to be real.

  41. 41.

    Maude

    July 15, 2012 at 3:59 pm

    @Amir Khalid:
    Four weeks would be better.

  42. 42.

    catclub

    July 15, 2012 at 4:00 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: “And what’s left is “The Man Who Saved The Olympics!”

    Except it I bet Team Obama will be early and often saying that he saved the Olympics by getting a Government bailout. How does he figure to get a bailout when he is running the government that bailed out the Olympics?

    Also, somebody else mentioned that: If it is true that he could do NOTHING ELSE (such as attend Bain Board meetings) while running the Olympics, then how big a job does he think being President of the US is, by comparison?

  43. 43.

    beltane

    July 15, 2012 at 4:02 pm

    @pseudonymous in nc: Dressage is a subculture within a subculture. If Romney were smart he would have owned Michael Phelps or the women’s beach volleyball team. Were they for sale?

  44. 44.

    FlipYrWhig

    July 15, 2012 at 4:02 pm

    @Valdivia: I don’t know, it seems kind of like a long shot to me, but I have a hunch they thought it was an ace in the hole. Even when the subject is Bain they keep bringing it up: “I/he wasn’t in charge then, I/he was off Saving The Olympics.”

  45. 45.

    scav

    July 15, 2012 at 4:03 pm

    @FlipYrWhig: Anyone been paying attention to some of the stories about the London Olympics? There are some really potentially tricky minefields for him there too. Everything has been branded and they’ve been fighting like crazed badgers defending logos. Who’s where and when you can eat chips/fries has been an issue, and other foodstuffs are not far behind, mentioning Olympics and London in the same sentence requires clearance in triplicate and probably requires a fee (although the knitters and Ravalry apparently took the IOC on, ok my source here is The Bugle). Might not be entirely the place he can escape the eau de big business he’s hoping for.

  46. 46.

    tonycpsu

    July 15, 2012 at 4:03 pm

    Has Schmidt actually been on the teevee since this thing really blew up? I can’t imagine him being on any of his regular MSNBC shows and not getting direct questions about where the bodies are buried in those tax returns.

  47. 47.

    cathyx

    July 15, 2012 at 4:05 pm

    There’s only one reason he isn’t releasing his tax returns. There is damaging information in there.

  48. 48.

    JPL

    July 15, 2012 at 4:05 pm

    The only thing that Romney will have to run on by the time September comes is his role as Governor. The unemployment level was low although 47th in the nation. Of course, Romneycare will be retroactively destroyed.

  49. 49.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    July 15, 2012 at 4:06 pm

    @scav: and the whole fund-raiser with ex-pat banksters and the line “tonight’s event was originally to be hosted by Barclay’s chief Bob Diamond, who resigned in the face of the growing LIBOR scandal”.

    I don’t want to get giddy this far out, and with an economy that’s still shaky, but the waters are getting choppy, and I think Cap’n Willard’s gonna wish he had an even bigger boat.

  50. 50.

    ploeg

    July 15, 2012 at 4:07 pm

    @dmsilev: And then there’s the “The Obama family loves to spend their vacation abroad but we choose to vacation in the good old USA” angle.

  51. 51.

    Zach

    July 15, 2012 at 4:08 pm

    @catclub: “Except it I bet Team Obama will be early and often saying that he saved the Olympics by getting a Government bailout. How does he figure to get a bailout when he is running the government that bailed out the Olympics?”

    There’s a great ABC news story from a few months ago with video of Romney bragging about how much Federal cash he got for the Olympics (way more than other Olympics!) while running for Governor… of course, this is juxtaposed with him in a primary debate saying that SLC got just as much as any other Olympics.

  52. 52.

    russ

    July 15, 2012 at 4:09 pm

    watching Sam Allen CEO and chairman of John Deere on the teevee at the John Deere golf tourney and I am not sure if, based upon what Mitt Romney is saying, I can beleive he is.

  53. 53.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    July 15, 2012 at 4:10 pm

    @Legalize: Not only is he going, he has his own competitor!! Rafalca, owned by Mrs. Rmoney and the Ebelings. What a way to connect. With others who are owners of professional sports teams and Olympic level show horses, that is.

  54. 54.

    WaterGirl

    July 15, 2012 at 4:11 pm

    @FlipYrWhig: Even the Bain guy on Up with Chris Hayes this morning shot Willard in the foot on this one. Oh, Willard was so busy saving the Olympics that he didn’t even have time to work out the details of his leaving — it took him 3 years to do that.

    If they were smart, they would have at least said he was so DEDICATED that he wouldn’t take time away from the Olympics. As it is, they are telling us that Mittens can’t multi-taxk. I mean, it’s not as if the President of the United States needs to be able to multi-task, right?

    These guys are morons.

  55. 55.

    Maude

    July 15, 2012 at 4:11 pm

    @ploeg:
    Hawaii?

  56. 56.

    Jeff(the other one)

    July 15, 2012 at 4:12 pm

    @Hunter Gathers:

    Either Romney’s an idiot, or the people he pays for political advice are idiots. Either way, unless he bites the bullet and releases the taxes, this shit won’t stop until election day. And they might just be dumb enough to let that happen

    Does this have to be an either/or? They have both demonstrated their incompetence multiple time, and no one in the organization has paid the price for it. Even if Gillespie and Fernstrom were walk the plank now for this it would only intensify the questions.

  57. 57.

    dmsilev

    July 15, 2012 at 4:12 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: At least that’s better than Romney’s planned fundraising dinner in Israel, which was scheduled for a day of fasting…

  58. 58.

    BGinCHI

    July 15, 2012 at 4:15 pm

    I love the whole “Business is complicated and you regular people wouldn’t understand!” excuse.

    Is there anyone who doesn’t know that this means: our rules mean we profit and your rule is Shut the Fuck Up!

  59. 59.

    WaterGirl

    July 15, 2012 at 4:15 pm

    @dmsilev: The best part of that story, I thought, was that they admitted that they knew it was a day of fasting, but they didn’t think it would be a big deal.

  60. 60.

    Frankensteinbeck

    July 15, 2012 at 4:16 pm

    At this point, I don’t think we even need the rumor that Mitt Romney will legalize polygamy.

  61. 61.

    beltane

    July 15, 2012 at 4:17 pm

    @WaterGirl: You know, all those people there are going to be baptized as Mormons after they’re dead anyway so what difference does it make.

  62. 62.

    SFAW

    July 15, 2012 at 4:18 pm

    @FlipYrWhig:

    Even when the subject is Bain they keep bringing it up: “I/he wasn’t in charge then, I/he was off Saving The Olympics.”

    “with the help of an infusion of a fair amount of cash from the US Government. Uhh, I mean …”

  63. 63.

    Nutella

    July 15, 2012 at 4:19 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    they knew it was a day of fasting, but they didn’t think it would be a big deal.

    Like those Mormon rules about drinking and smoking and tithing?

  64. 64.

    ploeg

    July 15, 2012 at 4:20 pm

    @Maude: Yes, some of them say Hawaii (they think that Hawaii is a foreign country), but most of it is because, for example, Michelle and Sasha choose to go to Spain for vacation. Because the First Family isn’t entitled to go abroad or have money spent for security for said trip or anything like that.

  65. 65.

    gbear

    July 15, 2012 at 4:21 pm

    Steve Schmidt is a fairly regular guest on Rachel Maddow’s show. I wonder if he’s going to stay away for a while. Rachel would be just the person to ask him what he saw in Romney’s tax returns.

    I also wonder what Romney’s providers of UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH!! are thinking about watching their investment go belly up due to their candidate’s unrelenting incompetence. Karl Rove must be punching babies by now out of frustration.

    So at this point, do the billionaires double down on Obama attacks, or switch their focus to house and senate campaigns?

  66. 66.

    SFAW

    July 15, 2012 at 4:23 pm

    Rmoney’s probably going to release his tax returns from 2003 forward, then when the Dem’s call bullshit, he’ll bombard the airwaves with some crap about how the Dems have gone off the deep end in their hatred, fear, and desperation.

    “What difference would an extra year or two make, anyway? Why are you so obsessed with this? Do you want his returns all the way back to 1978, would that make you happy? You guys have lost it!” usw.

  67. 67.

    PeakVT

    July 15, 2012 at 4:23 pm

    @Snarki, child of Loki: No, no, a thousand times no. Do not turn Romney into a victim here. Let this controversy fester.

  68. 68.

    dmsilev

    July 15, 2012 at 4:24 pm

    TPM’s newswire is just filled with hilarity this afternoon. Currently, the lead story is Obama saying no apology to Mitt, adding “Mr. Romney is now claiming he wasn’t there at the time except his filings with the SEC listing says he was the CEO, chairman and president of the company.” Just below that, Paul “Soylent Grandma” Ryan is quoted as saying that we should back off Romney because his money “which are managed by a blind trust for Pete’s sake”. Right below that is a story about the Romney campaign whining in public about how mean and nasty that Obama guy is being to them.

  69. 69.

    SFAW

    July 15, 2012 at 4:25 pm

    @gbear:

    Karl Rove must be punching babies by now out of frustration.

    Exactly how is THAT new? That’s he’s not eating them as well?

  70. 70.

    PeakVT

    July 15, 2012 at 4:27 pm

    Are the 2002 Olympics records public? If so, some enterprising reporter should go dig for phone bills from Romney’s office.

  71. 71.

    kay

    July 15, 2012 at 4:29 pm

    The part that is hilarious to me is, Romney is taking a long weekend. I don’t think the President or a candidate has to work all the time, but isn’t this sort of a crisis moment?
    He made 5 taped appearances and then TOOK OFF. He has ONE job, and it’s running for President. Many, probably MOST presidential candidates had two jobs when they were running, but according to Mitt Romney this has been his full-time job since 2007.
    If he doesn’t give a shit, why should his supporters?

  72. 72.

    RSA

    July 15, 2012 at 4:29 pm

    @IowaOldLady:

    My guess is he used some sort of rich guy deductions and has paid no income tax since leaving Bain, despite having millions in income.

    Or maybe even netted some cash from the government?

    And on the Olympics issue, Romney is already playing it weird. Olympic uniforms for Americans made in China? No comment. I guess the alternative is worse: “So what? We did that for the 2002 Olympics.”

  73. 73.

    dmsilev

    July 15, 2012 at 4:33 pm

    @kay: “A long weekend off” is probably a fig leaf to cover up the real story of “sequestered with advisors desperately looking for a way out of this debacle”. Spend just enough quasi-public time with the grandkids to establish the alibi, as it were, and the rest of the time screaming at the advisors whose advice he ignored for the last year or so.

    That last is just a guess of course, but it would be consistent with the alpha-CEO personality that he’s cultivated.

  74. 74.

    gbear

    July 15, 2012 at 4:36 pm

    @SFAW: You’re right. When Rove was winning the game, he was punching babies for the fun of it.

    It’s a joy to see him being outplayed so badly now. I don’t think Rove is used to that, and I hope it’s driving him crazy.

  75. 75.

    BethanyAnne

    July 15, 2012 at 4:38 pm

    I wonder why the Crossroads GPS folk aren’t blanketing the airwaves with a counterattack yet?

  76. 76.

    Amir Khalid

    July 15, 2012 at 4:40 pm

    @kay:
    As I recall, Newton le Roi Gingrich took a long vacation outside the country around this time last year, during his own presidential candidacy, which was also somewhat troubled at the time.

  77. 77.

    phoebes-in-santa fe

    July 15, 2012 at 4:41 pm

    @JPL: Haven’t you heard? Mitt Romney “retroactively resigned” from his governor’s seat in 2003. It’s the truth…Ed Gillespie said it.

  78. 78.

    WaterGirl

    July 15, 2012 at 4:41 pm

    @beltane: Shorter Romney: You need to respect my religion, but I don’t have to respect yours.

    Edit:

    @Nutella: I wrote that before seeing your comment just below… but the same answer applies.

    Just like everything else for Romney — one set of rules for me, another set for thee. When you’re that rich and that entitled, that’s the way the world works. I despise this man more with every day that passes.

  79. 79.

    kdaug

    July 15, 2012 at 4:41 pm

    @beltane:

    Mitt Romney is the only person in the world to have both a dead girl and a live boy in his tax returns

    Schrödinger’s 1040?

  80. 80.

    MikeJ

    July 15, 2012 at 4:42 pm

    @dmsilev:

    Ryan is quoted as saying that we should back off Romney because his money “which are managed by a blind trust for Pete’s sake”

    I seem to recall somebody calling a blind trust an “age old ruse.” Who was that? Oh yeah, I think I remember now….

  81. 81.

    Roger Moore

    July 15, 2012 at 4:47 pm

    @BethanyAnne:
    They don’t have an effective one to bring. The only thing they can reasonably hope to do at this point is to try to distract from the Bain mess, and they simply don’t have anything good enough to do that. The best they can hope for is to ride it out and attack Obama on something else once the press gets tired.

  82. 82.

    dmsilev

    July 15, 2012 at 4:48 pm

    @MikeJ: Retroactively, that doesn’t apply.

    Besides, 1994 was 18 years ago. Romney has reinvented himself 31 times since then.

  83. 83.

    kay

    July 15, 2012 at 4:50 pm

    @dmsilev:

    I don’t know. I realize I sound like an after-school-special soccer coach, but does he even WANT this? He likes attending fundraisers among people like himself, but that’s 1/100th of what he has to do to get this job. It’s easy to run ads. Where is the rest of the Romney “campaign”?

    He’s not willing to undergo any of the horrible, grueling parts of this, the loss of privacy is just inherent in this process.

    Releasing tax returns is easy compared to all the rest he’ll be expected to endure, and endure cheerfully and gratefully! He’s not even doing his own whining.

    No one is going to feel sorry for a multi-millionare who CHOSE this as a full-time job, nor should they.

  84. 84.

    Rekster

    July 15, 2012 at 4:53 pm

    @MikeJ: +1,000,000

  85. 85.

    Calouste

    July 15, 2012 at 4:55 pm

    @cathyx:

    There is zero, there is nothing, nada, zilch in Romney’s tax returns.

    In the box marked “taxes due this year”.

  86. 86.

    karen marie

    July 15, 2012 at 4:58 pm

    @MikeJ: Well, well, well. Somebody doesn’t want the peons seeing that video.

  87. 87.

    Amir Khalid

    July 15, 2012 at 5:00 pm

    @Roger Moore:
    In other words, they can only hope that the Obama camp is about to run out of ammo? That’s a very thin hope to be clinging to. especially since, as you say, they have nothing to counterattack with.

  88. 88.

    Nellcote

    July 15, 2012 at 5:00 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    And what’s left is “The Man Who Saved The Olympics!”

    So that’s why he had those pins made (in China) (at taxpayer’s expense)!

    http://www.rumproast.com/index.php/site/comments/one_more_time_mitt_flair/

  89. 89.

    dmsilev

    July 15, 2012 at 5:00 pm

    @kay: He’s been running for President non-stop since 2006, arguably since 2004. He wants the position. Maybe he doesn’t want the job, just the title, but it’s certainly important enough to him to spend a good 8 years working towards it.

  90. 90.

    kdaug

    July 15, 2012 at 5:05 pm

    @WereBear:

    W with a bullhorn; making a speech in New Orleans; landing a plane under a Mission Accomplished banner… everything is stage-managed. Never has to be real.

    Ding.

    And you never roll out a new product in August – they’ll wait until 9/12 to introduce new-and-improved Willard.

    If he’s tainted enough by then, he’ll be “New Coke”.

  91. 91.

    WereBear

    July 15, 2012 at 5:05 pm

    @kay: As you pointed out, it’s not like he has to work hard at it. Why does he want it?

    Like any spoiled child, it’s the only toy he doesn’t have.

  92. 92.

    karen marie

    July 15, 2012 at 5:06 pm

    @karen marie: That video’s gone, but there’s more!

  93. 93.

    elm

    July 15, 2012 at 5:09 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: What kind of weak shit is that ad? It’s whiny and petulant, yet completely ineffective. On the plus side, it looks like an intern slapped it together in about 2 hours, so they probably didn’t spend much for it.

  94. 94.

    Josie

    July 15, 2012 at 5:10 pm

    @kay: I think you have put your finger on the key to Romney. It is similar to the key to Sarah Palin, oddly enough. There is a strong desire to have the position of the office and the perks that go with it, even the perks of campaigning. There is, however, no desire for, or even understanding of, the grueling demands of the long campaign trail and the job itself. He probably thought he could just keep carpetbombing his opponent with television ads paid for with his and others’ millions and sweep through to victory.

  95. 95.

    Mike in NC

    July 15, 2012 at 5:12 pm

    @dmsilev

    Paul “Soylent Grandma” Ryan is quoted as saying that we should back off Romney because his money “which are managed by a blind trust for Pete’s sake”.

    If Ryan got the VP nod, I might seriously get religion.

  96. 96.

    Corpsicle

    July 15, 2012 at 5:24 pm

    @gbear: It’s likely that Steve Schmidt signed an NDA before he saw Romney’s financial information. He probably can’t talk about it, whether he wants to or not.

  97. 97.

    ...now I try to be amused

    July 15, 2012 at 5:28 pm

    @dmsilev: Romney wants the title, but most of all he wants to outdo his daddy — if it’s not too inconvenient.

  98. 98.

    johnny keweenaw

    July 15, 2012 at 5:29 pm

    @RSA:

    And on the Olympics issue, Romney is already playing it weird. Olympic uniforms for Americans made in China? No comment. I guess the alternative is worse: “So what? We did that for the 2002 Olympics.”

    Wouldnt surprise me at all.

    I love this shit. These fucks made America Hell Yeah Flagpin Foamfinger Wavin We’re #1 a litmus test for being a Real American. I hope they find out Mittens had eveything our athletes wore made in China, including the medals and the flag.

  99. 99.

    Roger Moore

    July 15, 2012 at 5:38 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    In other words, they can only hope that the Obama camp is about to run out of ammo?

    No, they’re afraid that they don’t have a lot of ammo. Any attack they launch now is likely to be stillborn because the Bain business is sucking up all the oxygen, and they won’t be able to bring it back later because it’s old news and didn’t have any effect the last time. They have to hope that the Bain business is the worst Obama can do and they can ride it out. Once the Bain business has blown over, they can use one of their counterattacks.

    If Obama actually has something worse than Bain up his sleeve, or if the Bain attack never blows over and just keeps getting bigger, there’s probably not a lot they can do to salvage Romney’s campaign anyway. At that point, spending their Unlimited Corporate Cash! on Romney would be throwing good money after bad. They’d be better off using their money on down ballot candidates, rather than trying to resuscitate a campaign that flatlined before the Convention.

  100. 100.

    Roger Moore

    July 15, 2012 at 5:39 pm

    @elm:

    On the plus side, it looks like an intern slapped it together in about 2 hours, so they probably didn’t spend much for it.

    Less than that; they apparently had it on later in the same show he made the statement.

  101. 101.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    July 15, 2012 at 5:43 pm

    @WereBear: BTW, Bush did not land that plane on a carrier. He was in the back seat while a Navy pilot landed the plane. A little-known and unreported fact.

  102. 102.

    JCT

    July 15, 2012 at 5:49 pm

    Hey — where’s John McCain? He’s been on the Sunday shows a million times. Why not have him on and say “there’s nothing wrong with those tax returns” or “of course I didn’t reject Mitt from the VP spot after looking at his tax returns”.

    Hmmmmmmm.

  103. 103.

    WereBear

    July 15, 2012 at 5:52 pm

    @Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason: Makes a whole lot of sense! Part and parcel of “it doesn’t have to be real. Just look like it.”

  104. 104.

    lamh35

    July 15, 2012 at 6:05 pm

    Obama:”We won’t be apologizing”

    POTUS is owning the attacks and is not backing down. Seems GOP should have listened when Biden said Obama’s got a “spine of steel”

    Romney originally called for Obama to apologize Friday, saying on ABC that the president “sure as heck ought to say he’s sorry for the kinds of attacks that are coming from his team.”

    “No, we won’t be apologizing,” Obama said in response. His remarks came during an interview airing Sunday on CNN affiliate WAVY, based in Norfolk, Virginia.

    In the interview, Obama waved off his rival’s grievance that he’s running an overwhelmingly negative campaign. The Romney campaign released an ad Sunday called “Hope and Change?” questioning whether the president’s 2008 campaign slogan had proved disappeared in 2012
    “You don’t hear me complaining a lot about what’s been said about me,” Obama said. “And Lord knows a lot’s been said about me over the past three and a half years. I understand the nature of our democracy has always been a little bit messy like this.”

  105. 105.

    lamh35

    July 15, 2012 at 6:05 pm

    Obama:”We won’t be apologizing”

    POTUS is owning the attacks and is not backing down. Seems GOP should have listened when Biden said Obama’s got a “spine of steel”

    Romney originally called for Obama to apologize Friday, saying on ABC that the president “sure as heck ought to say he’s sorry for the kinds of attacks that are coming from his team.”

    “No, we won’t be apologizing,” Obama said in response. His remarks came during an interview airing Sunday on CNN affiliate WAVY, based in Norfolk, Virginia.

    In the interview, Obama waved off his rival’s grievance that he’s running an overwhelmingly negative campaign. The Romney campaign released an ad Sunday called “Hope and Change?” questioning whether the president’s 2008 campaign slogan had proved disappeared in 2012
    “You don’t hear me complaining a lot about what’s been said about me,” Obama said. “And Lord knows a lot’s been said about me over the past three and a half years. I understand the nature of our democracy has always been a little bit messy like this.”

  106. 106.

    Frankensteinbeck

    July 15, 2012 at 6:06 pm

    @gbear:

    So at this point, do the billionaires double down on Obama attacks, or switch their focus to house and senate campaigns?

    They gave that money to a grifter specifically out of deranged hatred of Obama. The grifter will tell the billionaire they’re preparing to hit back harder. 1% of the money will be spent on an incoherent Obama attack ad, or even better to spread internet chain emails or bribe a ‘journalist’ to mistell a story they were going to mistell anyway. The other 99% will become operating expenses.

    Citizens United would be a terrifying blow against Democracy if it didn’t simultaneously remove any restrictions on corruption sucking up all that extra money.

  107. 107.

    kay

    July 15, 2012 at 6:26 pm

    @lamh35:

    Political media like it when the President coordinates outside groups to attack his opponent.

    That way they can tell the chumps in the cheap seats that the President isn’t doing this! Oh, no, it’s those nasty outside groups.

    Bush wasn’t smearing Kerry and Bush wasn’t pushing bigoted state laws to fire up his base. Outside groups were doing that.

    It’s bullshit and it’s always been bullshit. Good for Obama for taking Romney on himself, rather than hiding behind “outside groups”.

    Probably past time to put this fairy tale they’ve been telling us to rest.

  108. 108.

    JCT

    July 15, 2012 at 6:35 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck: Romney’s rich benefactors must be apoplectic over all of this. All of their $$ going right down the drain as Mitt can’t fight his way out of a paper bag.

    Gotta love Rove bleating “stop it, stop it — you’re making a big mistake!!” Sure, Karl — that’s why you’re trying to “help us out” with some advice?

  109. 109.

    dogwood

    July 15, 2012 at 6:38 pm

    I am anxious to see how Mitt handles the vetting and roll-out of his VP. I presume the team is demanding a thorough look at all of the candidates’ financial business which will include multiple years of tax statements . It will be interesting to then see how he handles the fact that he won’t release to the American people the same information he demanded from his VP.

  110. 110.

    Roger Moore

    July 15, 2012 at 6:51 pm

    @kay:

    Good for Obama for taking Romney on himself, rather than hiding behind “outside groups”.

    I think that’s part of bitchslap politics; maybe you could call these attacks “glove slap” politics. By making the attacks himself instead of through a proxy, Obama is making the issue personal. If Romney can’t respond in person, he looks weak.

  111. 111.

    rikyrah

    July 15, 2012 at 6:55 pm

    @kay:

    I don’t know. I realize I sound like an after-school-special soccer coach, but does he even WANT this? He likes attending fundraisers among people like himself, but that’s 1/100th of what he has to do to get this job. It’s easy to run ads. Where is the rest of the Romney “campaign”?

    he doesn’t want to do the JOB of President.

    he just wants to BE President.

    he’s a rich, entitled White man who thinks he should be President – just cause.

  112. 112.

    Tonal Crow

    July 15, 2012 at 7:22 pm

    Yep. If John McCain deserves to see 23 years of Mitt’s tax returns, don’t the American people deserve the same?

  113. 113.

    NonyNony

    July 15, 2012 at 7:33 pm

    @dmsilev:

    Maybe he doesn’t want the job, just the title, but it’s certainly important enough to him to spend a good 8 years working towards it.

    I don’t think you understand dmsilev. He wants to be listed as President, sole share holder and Chairman of the United States and draw a six figure salary. But for the amount they pay the President you can’t possibly expect him to put in actual work! I mean, he got paid six figures by Bain just to fraudulently put his name on some SEC paperwork for Pete’s sake!

  114. 114.

    LanceThruster

    July 15, 2012 at 8:36 pm

    @SFAW: That was my first thought. Mebbe when he gets flustered he eats them alive?

  115. 115.

    kindness

    July 15, 2012 at 8:41 pm

    No doubt there were years where Romney ended up paying no taxes or even getting money back. That’s why it’s never going to see the light of day.

    Oh if only we could hack that data and publish it.

  116. 116.

    FDRLincoln

    July 15, 2012 at 9:21 pm

    Barack Obama defeated/destroyed Osama bin Laden.

    I trust him to defeat Willard Romney.

  117. 117.

    Robin G.

    July 15, 2012 at 9:29 pm

    The Rude Pundit’s FB status:

    You know what I think Mitt’s hiding in the tax returns? How many millions he’s donated to the Mormon church.

    I hadn’t thought of that, but I bet he’s fuckin’ right.

  118. 118.

    natthedem

    July 15, 2012 at 9:50 pm

    To be fair, Rahm was parroting a line used by Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley last week.

    O’Malley’s been one of the best Obama surrogates that I’ve seen…and he is, undoubtedly, raising his stock with 2016 Democratic primary voters.

  119. 119.

    rb

    July 15, 2012 at 10:49 pm

    @kay: He’s not even doing his own whining.

    Ha! That’ll be on the campaign’s tombstone.

  120. 120.

    handy

    July 15, 2012 at 10:58 pm

    @Robin G.:

    Boy what a letdown that would be. I’m holding out hope that it’s all donations to LGBT organizations and Planned Parenthood. Maybe even something in there about income from investment in a few bunny ranches in Nevada.

  121. 121.

    Villago Delenda Est

    July 16, 2012 at 1:15 am

    There is no way for Rmoney and his clown car cavalcade of a campaign to “get ahead of this.”

    None.

    They are doomed.

    He either lied to the SEC, or he lied to the state of Massachusetts. One or the other. He’s been caught in his own poorly constructed web of pathological lies.

    I enjoy his suffering.

  122. 122.

    SFAW

    July 16, 2012 at 6:46 am

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    There is no way for Rmoney and his clown car cavalcade of a campaign to “get ahead of this. None.

    Thank FSM that we have a Press that will keep on this story, run it to the ground, do all the due diligence necessary to get to the bottom of whatever Romney may be hiding, and carefully lay out the case in something other than a “he said, he said” or “views differ” format. I sleep better at night knowing the watchdogs of the Fourth Estate are doing their utmost to inform the electorate, and generally protect democracy by not being stenographers for the Republican Party.

    All of which is my long-winded way of saying, “Keep telling yourself that, if it makes you feel better.”

    ETA: I enjoy Rmoney’s suffering, too, but I’m not making any long-term plans relative to enjoyment of said suffering.

  123. 123.

    J (reader)

    July 16, 2012 at 10:05 am

    Love the White Stripes, and The Denial Twist is a great song. Love this post title.

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