Most of the time I want to kick Harry in what I assume is his very negligible junk. But every now and then… Heh, indeedy.
3.
beltane
There is something about Mitt Romney that brings out the usually well-hidden “fighter” side of Harry Reid’s character. We’ve all been told he used to be a boxer but I’ve never seen him like this before.
4.
the Conster
Romney could disprove it easily, but he already said he wouldn’t. Then perception becomes reality, and fuck Jon Stewart’s concern trolling about this. Politics is not beanbag.
5.
kc
John Stewart got all preachy about Harry Reid last night. I mean, maybe John’s right, but I kind of love it that everyone is now talking about Romney not paying any taxes for 10 years.
Is that so wrong of me?
6.
mdblanche
@beltane: I wonder. What do Mormons with hardscrabble roots think of Mormons with country club backgrounds in general?
7.
aimai
If wanting to hear about Mitt’s taxes is wrong…I don’t want to be right.
aimai
8.
jl
Harry sez he heard from a rich man. And rich men tell no lies. QED.
Jeez, Harry is just telling what he done heard on the street. And no good deed goes unpunished, proven true again.
Leave Harry Reid alllooooooone, you guys!
9.
Comrade Jake
If you stare at Kilmeade long enough, you can almost see the gears turning in his head and the smoke coming out of his ears.
10.
eric
@the Conster: this is why so many folks dislike stewart. harry reid took a risk. he could be made to look like an ass. but the silence is deafening. the dad comment was golden. pitch perfect. his dad actually made an issue of disclosure, so the point had true merit. for those that are not old enough to know sister souljah, it is something like what stewart did….attack someone that should be your ally to show you are not in the tank.
11.
Hill Dweller
Stewart has to maintain his new found “balance”. But Reid is driving the narrative, knowing Willard can’t/won’t do shit to disprove his allegations.
12.
Hill Dweller
OT: The US men’s basketball team just scored 49 points in the 1st quarter(which is just 10 minutes in international basketball).
13.
JPL
Fox news is questioning sources? Did they ask Reid if he has granite counter tops?
14.
dmsilev
Mitt’s caught in a trap here, and the fact that it’s his own damn fault just makes the schadenfreude all the more sweet. If he doesn’t release the tax returns, the “what is he hiding?” and rampant speculation about Cayman Islands money laundering just keeps going and going and going. If he *does* release the forms, the whole world gets to see every last tax dodge and loophole that he undoubtedly used *and* he’s caved to demands from Those Evil Democrats.
What do Mormons with hardscrabble roots think of Mormons with country club backgrounds in general?
Probably the same thing most every other Mormon is saying right now–something to the effect of, If this guy gets fixed in public perception as the archetypal Mormon, we might not be able to show our faces outside of Greater Deseret for the next 10 years…
17.
LanceThruster
All your base are belong to us!
18.
Wag
I suspect there’s schism in the Mormon Church between Mormons like Sen. Reid, who are decent folk who want to to the right thing for America, vs. the Romney wing of the Church, which wants to do the Reich thing for America.
Most Mormons I know are in the decent wing of the above dichotomy. I hope that they support Reid, and not Romney.
And finally, Reid’s religion helps insulate him against possible recriminations of anti-Mormon bias.
19.
muddy
Just lucky for Mittens that the President is near, else he’d be at 27% .
20.
Pap Finn
The more I think about it, the more plausible it looks, and the weaselly, lawyerly stance taken by Romney & his campaign – that he’s “paid all the taxes required by law” – doesn’t help him at all. In fact, it positively reeks.
My fondest hope is that if it’s true, it somehow gets out before Tampa, thereby ensuring that the R’s convention will look like a chapter out of McCarthy’s ‘The Road’ (not that it wouldn’t, anyway).
I couldn’t tell if Stewart’s heart was really in that bit or if he was just doing it to show how righteous he is. Either way, he could have at least been funny about it.
At least that bit did have a fun montage of Fox News hosts repeatedly, over a period of years, doing exactly what they were criticizing Reid for doing. That made up for the finger-wagging, a little bit.
@kc: Fuck Jon Stewart. Seriously. The guy bought into his own hype a few years ago, and he’s become unbearably sanctimonious ever since. This is despite the Daily Show running pieces where they disparage the homeless, or dump on a vulnerable social advocacy organization prematurely.
‘ the weaselly, lawyerly stance taken by Romney & his campaign, that he’s “paid all the taxes required by law”, doesn’t help him at all. In fact, it positively reeks. ‘
I think you meant that the Romney stance is “paid all the taxes required by law, and NOT a DIME MORE”.
O’l Harry is just saying that he heard a rich guy, all personal face to face like, say that it was actually “paid all the taxes required by law: not a DIME”
Harry is trying to help out a soul. I don’t what all the fuss is about.
27.
Xecky Gilchrist
@kc: No, but some idiot spoiled it in another thread already.
28.
hells littlest angel
I had almost forgiven Stewart for his pompous “rally” of a couple of years back. This bit of self-righteousness is sure to earn him a lick of Bill O’Reilly’s ice cream cone.
I saw it when I opened the browser on someone else’s computer – MSN has it right on the home page. So much for the suspense. I don’t actually mind knowing it now, but I wouldn’t want to spoil it for anyone else.
30.
Randy P
Hey, where’s ABL’s personal troll, the one who reads every post to comment on how he doesn’t want to read ABL?
I’m right there with you, brother. Jon Stewart has become what he used to skewer nightly: a suck up to Republicans, a both sides do it Villager more concerned with being invited to Georgetown and Wall Streeter cocktail parties than with truth or even a modicum of comedy. Instead of telling jokes, he’s become one.
33.
Walker
How is what Harry is doing any worse than the unnamed sources the media has been using for years?
34.
lonesomerobot
There’s some reason I just like Harry Reid. Sure, he’s a centrist Mormon Democrat who all-too-often worships the false idol of bipartisanship. But then sometimes he does stuff like this. And to think that turdburgling whackjob Sharon Angle (MAN UP, HARRY!) almost beat him in 2010.
This, to me, is just brilliant. Because the question of whether it’s fair for Harry Reid to speculate is always going to be overshadowed by the question of just what is in Dubya Mitt Rmoney’s tax returns. And the Rmoney campaign literally cannot have the discussion about what’s “unfair” or — haha — “indecent” about what Harry Reid is saying without having to address the fact that their candidate still refuses to let the voting public know if he did indeed pay no taxes for ten years.
It’s awesome because it may well be that Harry Reid is just making sh!t up. But the consequences are so much more dire to Dubya Mitt Rmoney.
Sorry if this has already been covered here, my wife had a baby, we moved, and I started a new job all in the last 6 months, so I’m only now getting back into the loop.
35.
Wazmo
Amazing thing is no Fox Chyron chicanery is to be found here.
I love hearing all the irreverent monikers for the Willard Mechanism. I had not heard that one yet. I like it because it ties him to the last Rethuglican disaster like a f#cking albatross.
39.
Liberty60
I like this.
“Make the bastard deny it!”
Who are these Dems who can throw sharp elbows, and can we get some more like them?
I get the distinct impression that Reid has some particular reason to dislike Romney, beyond mere partisanship. Just as in Goodfellas “it was real greaseball s#it” that led to Tommy getting wacked, this may be some kind of insider Mormon s#it playing out.
43.
Shawn in ShowMe
Notice that we don’t have any young, effective Dem Congresscritters who also excel at bomb-throwing. Pelosi and Harry Reid aren’t going to live forever.
The secret of effective bomb-throwing is not to do it all the time. That’s why Alan Grayson sucked at it. The younger pols need to observe their elders and learn how to pick their spots.
44.
lamh35
Back to other things, I see Romney’s respons to Harry Reid today is “put up or shut up”! Um isn’t that funny, Romney could shut this down by just releasing the tax forms.
What’s sad is the the MSM will essentially not call Romney on it at all. I say keep in talking Reid!
@Shawn in ShowMe: Absolutely agree about Alan Grayson. I like dems with stones but with Grayson the stones took over at times. Still I would like to see him back in office in some capacity.
49.
jwb
@kc: John’s completely wrong about this. The Mittwit needs to release his tax returns, and shame is the best weapon we have to make that so. Reid has exposed himself to potential ridicule here and the Mittwit can serve up that ridicule very easily by releasing his tax returns.
BTW, does anyone know if and how the tax returns are validated? That is, what’s to keep the Mittwit or anyone else from simply releasing fabricated returns? Is the IRS permitted to validate that the returns released are actually the returns on record?
50.
maya
Rmoney: “Sigh. Running for office can be so….. taxing.”
51.
TenguPhule
Someone set us up the Romney Bomb.
52.
jwb
@EconWatcher: Stewart had his chance with that rally thing, but he opted instead for the safe Broder play. That’s when he decided that he wasn’t going to risk his career to make a point and so turned into a funny, left-of-center Jay Leno. Fortunately, he still has some sharp funny folks working for him, so the show isn’t entirely useless.
Reid (or anyone else) can speculate and then some on what’s in Mitt Romney’s tax returns without fear of being disproven, because Romney’s never going to release them. Never.
Why, I heard that in 2005 Romney took a $3.8 million deduction for car-elevator research. Of course, he could easily prove me wrong. All he has to do is …
See?
54.
jwb
@lonesomerobot: Reid’s play here also seems coordinated. I hope it is evidence that the Dems have decided to take a risk and play for the whole shebang in November: control of the House, Senate and Presidency. Personally, I think it is worth the risk since the numbers are close enough and soft enough to make a wave election possible.
55.
Bokonon
Kind of like Newt Gingrich and John Bolton said just the other day about claims that the Muslim Brotherhood was infiltrating the State Department:
Hey, we are just asking QUESTIONS. What is wrong with asking QUESTIONS? Why are you so scared of the QUESTIONS? Since when did asking QUESTIONS become off limits? If you don’t have anything to hide, why won’t you answer the QUESTIONS?
Watch the GOP shriek like little girls when their tactics are finally, FINALLY used back on them.
56.
4tehlulz
@Hungry Joe: Obligatory “It would be irresponsible not to speculate.”
57.
lonesomerobot
@jwb: Although I’m not that optimistic, I’ve thought from the start that Obama should have just said straight up, these republicans are killing our country – give me a second term with a mandate, a veto-proof majority in the Senate and control of the house and watch how sh!t gets done. We’ll fix the deficit, the economy, health policy (because there is more to do), education, and finally make Scalia’s head explode.
58.
Xecky Gilchrist
You know, isn’t it just possible that Rmoney is trying to play like Obama did with the birth certificate and let the rumors swirl for a while and then release the tax returns, showing nothing out of order, right when it does the most harm to his opponents politically? Like how Obama released the “long form” just in time to make Trump deflate like a bagpipe sack full of rhino farts?
…given the quality of brains his honking bus campaign has shown so far, I’m going to file that under “really unlikely”.
59.
hells littlest angel
@jwb: I’m a member of that tiny minority that agrees with you that all branches are in play, especially if we get behind fighters like Harry Reid.
60.
Short Bus Bully
“Would it be irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible NOT to!”
Think I heard that shit somewhere before.
Mitt is getting beat up by a little (Mormon) nerdling. Fucking love it!
61.
jim parente
Some good news about “The Daily Show”. They just signed their first union contract with I.A.T.S.E
62.
jim parente
Some good news about “The Daily Show”. They just signed their first union contract with I.A.T.S.E
63.
jim parente
Some good news about “The Daily Show”. They just signed their first union contract with I.A.T.S.E
Like paying 13% taxes on millions in income? Even if the tax returns are perfect, they still look bad. And considering what Maddow brought up about his returns during his run for MA gov, it looks unlikely that they’re perfect.
69.
rumpole
Call me a prude, but I don’t like this. Either make an allegation, or don’t, but not this kind of nonsense.
John Stewart got all preachy about Harry Reid last night.
Stewart played right into Reid’s hands there. Just as much as the FOX morons up above.
How many times in his rant did he talk about tax returns? Sure he used it to castigate Reid, but so what? Reid isn’t running this year, Obama is. And when people hear “Harry Reid made an outrageous allegation that Romney didn’t pay taxes” that boils down to “Romney didn’t pay taxes” in the minds of everyone who hears it.
Even Fox News couldn’t figure out how to write a chyron to hide it. You can’t report this story and make it about how outrageous Harry Reid is without saying what he said. And since it’s Reid – not Obama – you can’t make the story about Obama without extensive contortions.
Reid is a champion at the whole “electoral politics” game. I wish he were more left of center than he is, and I wish he didn’t have this belief that you don’t use the same tactics when you’re governing that you do when you’re campaigning (Obama’s got it too). But I would not want to be against Harry Reid’s tactics in an election. Or against Obama’s for that matter. They both have ways of turning a shit sandwich into roast beef and mashed potatoes.
Either make an allegation, or don’t, but not this kind of nonsense.
What are you talking about? Reid has made an allegation – he alleges that Romney didn’t pay taxes for 10 years based on information he received from a constituent.
If you don’t like this, you don’t like the fact that Reid is making allegations without proof. But there’s certainly allegations flying here.
@Xecky Gilchrist:
Not possible, because there was enough in the released forms to justify needling Romney for them. Assuming Romney releases a bunch more and they’re ‘squeaky clean’, they still show him paying a 14% tax rate not including a bewildering array of offshore tax dodges. Obama switches fists to the one he primed ready months ago at the deficit speech – the rich pay a fraction of what the rest of us do, and want to pay even less. A conversation Romney wants to have even less than ‘not releasing your tax forms is suspicious’. There is no out here for Romney, just a question of what is the least bloody option. Odds of The Plastic Political Prodigy choosing that option? Preeeeetty close to none.
But I would not want to be against Harry Reid’s tactics in an election. Or against Obama’s for that matter. They both have ways of turning a shit sandwich into roast beef and mashed potatoes.
Perfect analogy.
78.
Xecky Gilchrist
@Martin: That’s right, and it makes this whole thing even better, doesn’t it?
79.
Xecky Gilchrist
@Frankensteinbeck: Indeed. I’m having a great time with all this.
80.
stinger
@lonesomerobot: Aaaahhhhhh — thanks! What a cutie! Worth all the grey hairs and no sleep!
81.
stinger
@Xecky Gilchrist: Unlikely in the extreme, I’d say. Obama has shown over and over again that he plays the long game. Rmoney has shown over and over again that he’s a rich guy who wants to be President. That’s all he’s got.
But I would not want to be against Harry Reid’s tactics in an election.
No kidding. His 2010 campaign should go down as a case study in electioneering. Dude’s approval rating was like 25% and he ended upwinning with room to spare.
He made his most dangerous rival (Lowden) look like such a clown (“chickens for health care” got caught on tape and played endlessly because Reid’s campaign saw to it) that a completely batshit teabagger stole the nomination, then made the general election entirely about how fucking crazy she is, with a little bit of “I’ll bring home the pork and this bitch won’t” mixed in for good measure.
His campaign and Barbara Boxer’s were both clinics in taking idiot Republicans behind the woodshed and beating their brains in. I’d include Meg Whitman, but she did it to herself by drowning the state in ads that only made everyone hate her and having that illegal immigrant problem.
Is it that MittBot did not pay taxes for ten hoo-man years or that he did not file taxes for ten years? There is a difference. One would make him a dirty cheat and the other a rotten liar, but I’m not sure which is which.
84.
Jamie
hell, Mitt didn’t pay taxes for 10 years? It must be true, I heard it on Fox News.
85.
Uncle Cosmo
@4tehlulz: 2009 tax amnesty. Bazillions of bucks hidden in offshore accounts repatriated in exchange for pennies on the dollar of what was in fact owed. (I posted an earlier much longer comment to this effect but it got sucked down to limbo; FYWP.)
redshirt
Shh! Now they’ll figure out what’s going on!
Svensker
Heh.
Most of the time I want to kick Harry in what I assume is his very negligible junk. But every now and then… Heh, indeedy.
beltane
There is something about Mitt Romney that brings out the usually well-hidden “fighter” side of Harry Reid’s character. We’ve all been told he used to be a boxer but I’ve never seen him like this before.
the Conster
Romney could disprove it easily, but he already said he wouldn’t. Then perception becomes reality, and fuck Jon Stewart’s concern trolling about this. Politics is not beanbag.
kc
John Stewart got all preachy about Harry Reid last night. I mean, maybe John’s right, but I kind of love it that everyone is now talking about Romney not paying any taxes for 10 years.
Is that so wrong of me?
mdblanche
@beltane: I wonder. What do Mormons with hardscrabble roots think of Mormons with country club backgrounds in general?
aimai
If wanting to hear about Mitt’s taxes is wrong…I don’t want to be right.
aimai
jl
Harry sez he heard from a rich man. And rich men tell no lies. QED.
Jeez, Harry is just telling what he done heard on the street. And no good deed goes unpunished, proven true again.
Leave Harry Reid alllooooooone, you guys!
Comrade Jake
If you stare at Kilmeade long enough, you can almost see the gears turning in his head and the smoke coming out of his ears.
eric
@the Conster: this is why so many folks dislike stewart. harry reid took a risk. he could be made to look like an ass. but the silence is deafening. the dad comment was golden. pitch perfect. his dad actually made an issue of disclosure, so the point had true merit. for those that are not old enough to know sister souljah, it is something like what stewart did….attack someone that should be your ally to show you are not in the tank.
Hill Dweller
Stewart has to maintain his new found “balance”. But Reid is driving the narrative, knowing Willard can’t/won’t do shit to disprove his allegations.
Hill Dweller
OT: The US men’s basketball team just scored 49 points in the 1st quarter(which is just 10 minutes in international basketball).
JPL
Fox news is questioning sources? Did they ask Reid if he has granite counter tops?
dmsilev
Mitt’s caught in a trap here, and the fact that it’s his own damn fault just makes the schadenfreude all the more sweet. If he doesn’t release the tax returns, the “what is he hiding?” and rampant speculation about Cayman Islands money laundering just keeps going and going and going. If he *does* release the forms, the whole world gets to see every last tax dodge and loophole that he undoubtedly used *and* he’s caved to demands from Those Evil Democrats.
jl
@dmsilev:
I think it is very uncivil of Democrats to point out that Mitt is caught in one his own traps (again).
Uncle Cosmo
@mdblanche:
Probably the same thing most every other Mormon is saying right now–something to the effect of, If this guy gets fixed in public perception as the archetypal Mormon, we might not be able to show our faces outside of Greater Deseret for the next 10 years…
LanceThruster
All your base are belong to us!
Wag
I suspect there’s schism in the Mormon Church between Mormons like Sen. Reid, who are decent folk who want to to the right thing for America, vs. the Romney wing of the Church, which wants to do the Reich thing for America.
Most Mormons I know are in the decent wing of the above dichotomy. I hope that they support Reid, and not Romney.
And finally, Reid’s religion helps insulate him against possible recriminations of anti-Mormon bias.
muddy
Just lucky for Mittens that the President is near, else he’d be at 27% .
Pap Finn
The more I think about it, the more plausible it looks, and the weaselly, lawyerly stance taken by Romney & his campaign – that he’s “paid all the taxes required by law” – doesn’t help him at all. In fact, it positively reeks.
My fondest hope is that if it’s true, it somehow gets out before Tampa, thereby ensuring that the R’s convention will look like a chapter out of McCarthy’s ‘The Road’ (not that it wouldn’t, anyway).
kc
@the Conster:
I couldn’t tell if Stewart’s heart was really in that bit or if he was just doing it to show how righteous he is. Either way, he could have at least been funny about it.
At least that bit did have a fun montage of Fox News hosts repeatedly, over a period of years, doing exactly what they were criticizing Reid for doing. That made up for the finger-wagging, a little bit.
kc
@Hill Dweller:
Also OT, I HATE basketball in the Olympics. But did anyone see what happened in the women’s gymnastics today? :D
LanceThruster
@Wag:
I’ve been seeing lots of LDS articles about how John Huntsman is possibly not dedicated enough to his Mormonism.
I mean, wtf?
Thoughtcrime
Romney can’t open up his tax returns because of what happened the last time — when McCain’s campaign vetted him.
Reid may not know exactly what’s in the returns, but he knows that Romney can’t afford to let this happen again:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m83JcNoNQ-4&feature=related
Joel
@kc: Fuck Jon Stewart. Seriously. The guy bought into his own hype a few years ago, and he’s become unbearably sanctimonious ever since. This is despite the Daily Show running pieces where they disparage the homeless, or dump on a vulnerable social advocacy organization prematurely.
jl
@Pap Finn:
‘ the weaselly, lawyerly stance taken by Romney & his campaign, that he’s “paid all the taxes required by law”, doesn’t help him at all. In fact, it positively reeks. ‘
I think you meant that the Romney stance is “paid all the taxes required by law, and NOT a DIME MORE”.
O’l Harry is just saying that he heard a rich guy, all personal face to face like, say that it was actually “paid all the taxes required by law: not a DIME”
Harry is trying to help out a soul. I don’t what all the fuss is about.
Xecky Gilchrist
@kc: No, but some idiot spoiled it in another thread already.
hells littlest angel
I had almost forgiven Stewart for his pompous “rally” of a couple of years back. This bit of self-righteousness is sure to earn him a lick of Bill O’Reilly’s ice cream cone.
kc
@Xecky Gilchrist:
I saw it when I opened the browser on someone else’s computer – MSN has it right on the home page. So much for the suspense. I don’t actually mind knowing it now, but I wouldn’t want to spoil it for anyone else.
Randy P
Hey, where’s ABL’s personal troll, the one who reads every post to comment on how he doesn’t want to read ABL?
EconWatcher
@hells littlest angel:
Stewart has never done anything as gutsy as Colbert at the White House Correspondents Dinner, and never will.
But in fairness, Colbert should be on Mount Rushmore for that one.
geg6
@Joel:
I’m right there with you, brother. Jon Stewart has become what he used to skewer nightly: a suck up to Republicans, a both sides do it Villager more concerned with being invited to Georgetown and Wall Streeter cocktail parties than with truth or even a modicum of comedy. Instead of telling jokes, he’s become one.
Walker
How is what Harry is doing any worse than the unnamed sources the media has been using for years?
lonesomerobot
There’s some reason I just like Harry Reid. Sure, he’s a centrist Mormon Democrat who all-too-often worships the false idol of bipartisanship. But then sometimes he does stuff like this. And to think that turdburgling whackjob Sharon Angle (MAN UP, HARRY!) almost beat him in 2010.
This, to me, is just brilliant. Because the question of whether it’s fair for Harry Reid to speculate is always going to be overshadowed by the question of just what is in Dubya Mitt Rmoney’s tax returns. And the Rmoney campaign literally cannot have the discussion about what’s “unfair” or — haha — “indecent” about what Harry Reid is saying without having to address the fact that their candidate still refuses to let the voting public know if he did indeed pay no taxes for ten years.
It’s awesome because it may well be that Harry Reid is just making sh!t up. But the consequences are so much more dire to Dubya Mitt Rmoney.
Sorry if this has already been covered here, my wife had a baby, we moved, and I started a new job all in the last 6 months, so I’m only now getting back into the loop.
Wazmo
Amazing thing is no Fox Chyron chicanery is to be found here.
Linda Featheringill
@lonesomerobot:
Congratulations! On all fronts!
What’s the name of the little one? Picture?
R-Jud
@lonesomerobot:
Yeesh. Do you have any non-grey hairs left? Slept recently?
LanceThruster
@lonesomerobot:
I love hearing all the irreverent monikers for the Willard Mechanism. I had not heard that one yet. I like it because it ties him to the last Rethuglican disaster like a f#cking albatross.
Liberty60
I like this.
“Make the bastard deny it!”
Who are these Dems who can throw sharp elbows, and can we get some more like them?
lonesomerobot
@Linda Featheringill:
Her name is Lucia Claire-
http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/575628_10150664065382134_860730934_n.jpg
@R-Jud:
If I were to quantify it, I would estimate a 50% increase in grey hairs and a 50% decrease in sleep!
lonesomerobot
@LanceThruster: I have to admit I stole this one from Doghouse Riley (with a h/t to a post after this one).
EconWatcher
I get the distinct impression that Reid has some particular reason to dislike Romney, beyond mere partisanship. Just as in Goodfellas “it was real greaseball s#it” that led to Tommy getting wacked, this may be some kind of insider Mormon s#it playing out.
Shawn in ShowMe
Notice that we don’t have any young, effective Dem Congresscritters who also excel at bomb-throwing. Pelosi and Harry Reid aren’t going to live forever.
The secret of effective bomb-throwing is not to do it all the time. That’s why Alan Grayson sucked at it. The younger pols need to observe their elders and learn how to pick their spots.
lamh35
Back to other things, I see Romney’s respons to Harry Reid today is “put up or shut up”! Um isn’t that funny, Romney could shut this down by just releasing the tax forms.
What’s sad is the the MSM will essentially not call Romney on it at all. I say keep in talking Reid!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/02/mitt-romney-harry-reid-taxes_n_1735197.html
LanceThruster
@Liberty60:
A-effin-men to that.
4tehlulz
Mitt must have gotten a killer refund to keep up this charade.
LanceThruster
@lonesomerobot:
The Dog would be proud, I’m sure.
lonesomerobot
@Shawn in ShowMe: Absolutely agree about Alan Grayson. I like dems with stones but with Grayson the stones took over at times. Still I would like to see him back in office in some capacity.
jwb
@kc: John’s completely wrong about this. The Mittwit needs to release his tax returns, and shame is the best weapon we have to make that so. Reid has exposed himself to potential ridicule here and the Mittwit can serve up that ridicule very easily by releasing his tax returns.
BTW, does anyone know if and how the tax returns are validated? That is, what’s to keep the Mittwit or anyone else from simply releasing fabricated returns? Is the IRS permitted to validate that the returns released are actually the returns on record?
maya
Rmoney: “Sigh. Running for office can be so….. taxing.”
TenguPhule
Someone set us up the Romney Bomb.
jwb
@EconWatcher: Stewart had his chance with that rally thing, but he opted instead for the safe Broder play. That’s when he decided that he wasn’t going to risk his career to make a point and so turned into a funny, left-of-center Jay Leno. Fortunately, he still has some sharp funny folks working for him, so the show isn’t entirely useless.
Hungry Joe
Reid (or anyone else) can speculate and then some on what’s in Mitt Romney’s tax returns without fear of being disproven, because Romney’s never going to release them. Never.
Why, I heard that in 2005 Romney took a $3.8 million deduction for car-elevator research. Of course, he could easily prove me wrong. All he has to do is …
See?
jwb
@lonesomerobot: Reid’s play here also seems coordinated. I hope it is evidence that the Dems have decided to take a risk and play for the whole shebang in November: control of the House, Senate and Presidency. Personally, I think it is worth the risk since the numbers are close enough and soft enough to make a wave election possible.
Bokonon
Kind of like Newt Gingrich and John Bolton said just the other day about claims that the Muslim Brotherhood was infiltrating the State Department:
Hey, we are just asking QUESTIONS. What is wrong with asking QUESTIONS? Why are you so scared of the QUESTIONS? Since when did asking QUESTIONS become off limits? If you don’t have anything to hide, why won’t you answer the QUESTIONS?
Watch the GOP shriek like little girls when their tactics are finally, FINALLY used back on them.
4tehlulz
@Hungry Joe: Obligatory “It would be irresponsible not to speculate.”
lonesomerobot
@jwb: Although I’m not that optimistic, I’ve thought from the start that Obama should have just said straight up, these republicans are killing our country – give me a second term with a mandate, a veto-proof majority in the Senate and control of the house and watch how sh!t gets done. We’ll fix the deficit, the economy, health policy (because there is more to do), education, and finally make Scalia’s head explode.
Xecky Gilchrist
You know, isn’t it just possible that Rmoney is trying to play like Obama did with the birth certificate and let the rumors swirl for a while and then release the tax returns, showing nothing out of order, right when it does the most harm to his opponents politically? Like how Obama released the “long form” just in time to make Trump deflate like a bagpipe sack full of rhino farts?
…given the quality of brains his honking bus campaign has shown so far, I’m going to file that under “really unlikely”.
hells littlest angel
@jwb: I’m a member of that tiny minority that agrees with you that all branches are in play, especially if we get behind fighters like Harry Reid.
Short Bus Bully
“Would it be irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible NOT to!”
Think I heard that shit somewhere before.
Mitt is getting beat up by a little (Mormon) nerdling. Fucking love it!
jim parente
Some good news about “The Daily Show”. They just signed their first union contract with I.A.T.S.E
jim parente
Some good news about “The Daily Show”. They just signed their first union contract with I.A.T.S.E
jim parente
Some good news about “The Daily Show”. They just signed their first union contract with I.A.T.S.E
Short Bus Bully
@Xecky Gilchrist:
Holy fuck that made me laugh…
lonesomerobot
@jim parente: I’m assuming the triple post is a union requirement
Bago
@lonesomerobot: Heh.
SW
I’ve heard he has sex with pigs. And claims them as dependents. Of course he could clear this all up by simply releasing his tax returns.
Martin
@Xecky Gilchrist:
Like paying 13% taxes on millions in income? Even if the tax returns are perfect, they still look bad. And considering what Maddow brought up about his returns during his run for MA gov, it looks unlikely that they’re perfect.
rumpole
Call me a prude, but I don’t like this. Either make an allegation, or don’t, but not this kind of nonsense.
NonyNony
@kc:
Stewart played right into Reid’s hands there. Just as much as the FOX morons up above.
How many times in his rant did he talk about tax returns? Sure he used it to castigate Reid, but so what? Reid isn’t running this year, Obama is. And when people hear “Harry Reid made an outrageous allegation that Romney didn’t pay taxes” that boils down to “Romney didn’t pay taxes” in the minds of everyone who hears it.
Even Fox News couldn’t figure out how to write a chyron to hide it. You can’t report this story and make it about how outrageous Harry Reid is without saying what he said. And since it’s Reid – not Obama – you can’t make the story about Obama without extensive contortions.
Reid is a champion at the whole “electoral politics” game. I wish he were more left of center than he is, and I wish he didn’t have this belief that you don’t use the same tactics when you’re governing that you do when you’re campaigning (Obama’s got it too). But I would not want to be against Harry Reid’s tactics in an election. Or against Obama’s for that matter. They both have ways of turning a shit sandwich into roast beef and mashed potatoes.
NonyNony
@rumpole:
What are you talking about? Reid has made an allegation – he alleges that Romney didn’t pay taxes for 10 years based on information he received from a constituent.
If you don’t like this, you don’t like the fact that Reid is making allegations without proof. But there’s certainly allegations flying here.
Steve
@Shawn in ShowMe: DWS is a heck of a bomb-thrower.
not motorik
It’s good to know that someone is still using internet memes from a decade ago.
GOOD JOB, ABL!
Frankensteinbeck
@Xecky Gilchrist:
Not possible, because there was enough in the released forms to justify needling Romney for them. Assuming Romney releases a bunch more and they’re ‘squeaky clean’, they still show him paying a 14% tax rate not including a bewildering array of offshore tax dodges. Obama switches fists to the one he primed ready months ago at the deficit speech – the rich pay a fraction of what the rest of us do, and want to pay even less. A conversation Romney wants to have even less than ‘not releasing your tax forms is suspicious’. There is no out here for Romney, just a question of what is the least bloody option. Odds of The Plastic Political Prodigy choosing that option? Preeeeetty close to none.
Imani Gandy (ABL)
@not motorik: fap fap fap.
var
Took him 6 years of being majority leader but he may be getting it. Pelosi does and has.
Let’s get the damn House back.
Publius39
@NonyNony:
Perfect analogy.
Xecky Gilchrist
@Martin: That’s right, and it makes this whole thing even better, doesn’t it?
Xecky Gilchrist
@Frankensteinbeck: Indeed. I’m having a great time with all this.
stinger
@lonesomerobot: Aaaahhhhhh — thanks! What a cutie! Worth all the grey hairs and no sleep!
stinger
@Xecky Gilchrist: Unlikely in the extreme, I’d say. Obama has shown over and over again that he plays the long game. Rmoney has shown over and over again that he’s a rich guy who wants to be President. That’s all he’s got.
Turgidson
@NonyNony:
No kidding. His 2010 campaign should go down as a case study in electioneering. Dude’s approval rating was like 25% and he ended upwinning with room to spare.
He made his most dangerous rival (Lowden) look like such a clown (“chickens for health care” got caught on tape and played endlessly because Reid’s campaign saw to it) that a completely batshit teabagger stole the nomination, then made the general election entirely about how fucking crazy she is, with a little bit of “I’ll bring home the pork and this bitch won’t” mixed in for good measure.
His campaign and Barbara Boxer’s were both clinics in taking idiot Republicans behind the woodshed and beating their brains in. I’d include Meg Whitman, but she did it to herself by drowning the state in ads that only made everyone hate her and having that illegal immigrant problem.
Dan
Question for clarification:
Is it that MittBot did not pay taxes for ten hoo-man years or that he did not file taxes for ten years? There is a difference. One would make him a dirty cheat and the other a rotten liar, but I’m not sure which is which.
Jamie
hell, Mitt didn’t pay taxes for 10 years? It must be true, I heard it on Fox News.
Uncle Cosmo
@4tehlulz: 2009 tax amnesty. Bazillions of bucks hidden in offshore accounts repatriated in exchange for pennies on the dollar of what was in fact owed. (I posted an earlier much longer comment to this effect but it got sucked down to limbo; FYWP.)
LanceThruster
@Imani Gandy (ABL):
Indeed. Some memes are eternal. That’s why they’re memes.
lonesomerobot
@stinger: Thanks! We think she’s the most incredible thing ever, absolutely worth every lost wink and grey hair.