Wow, the list is growing.
The choruses growing louder.
And from ROMNEY'S side, now!
Remember, this is the pot of gold at the end of Obama's Bain attacks. The ads are constructed to FORCE Mitt to come clean. And now, some assists from the GOP.
Sure, the DNC, Obama, Democratic Senators, etc. have all gone on record that Mitt Romney should release his tax records.
But they're getting some unexpected help from the bad guys.
So, I thought it might be fun to create a running (documented!) list of all these fine folks who are calling for transparency.
If you have any more, please include in the comments, and I will add to the running list......
First, the Coup de gras
On Fox News Sunday, conservative Bill Kristol called on Mitt Romney to be proud of his achievements at Bain and release up to 10 years of his tax returns.
“Here’s what he should do. He should release the tax returns tomorrow,” Kristol said. “In this craze, you’ve got to release 6, 8, 10 years of back tax returns. Take the hit for a day or two.”
"Hit?", Bill? Why, what "hit" might THAT be?
Next, we have this from TPM, from days ago:
On Thursday, Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), who heads all House GOP campaign efforts, told reporters that questions about Romney’s holdings were on target, according to CNN.
“His personal finances, the way he does things, his record, are fair game,” Sessions said. While he declined to name a specific amount of information or number of years’ worth of tax returns Romney should release, he called the issue a “legitimate question.” Romney has only released his 2010 tax return and had said he will release his 2011 return before the election.
But those “off-base” attacks are not sitting well with some Republicans. Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) flatly told CNN Thursday that Romney needed to make at least six years’ worth of returns public — and soon.
“I think he should release his financial records and I think if he does it in July it would be a lot better than in October,” Jones said. “Whenever you are asking for the vote of the American people that you need to fully disclose what your holdings are, if you have any.”
[Former Mississippi Gov. Haley] Barbour told CNN Tuesday that he would release the returns if he was in Romney’s shoes. “I would. But should it be an issue in the campaign? I don’t think it amounts to diddly.”
Former RNC Chairman Michael Steele also called on Romney to release additional returns on MSNBC this week, reasoning that it would put Democratic attacks to rest. The Obama campaign highlighted Steele’s quote in a web video on Romney’s Cayman Islands and Bermuda assets.
“If there’s nothing there, there’s no ‘there’ there, don’t create a there,’” Steele said.
Now, on to ABCNews
ABC News’ George Will slammed presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney for failing to fully release information on his tax returns and offshore accounts, saying Romney “must have calculated that there are higher costs in releasing them.”
[...]
“If something’s going to come out, get it out in a hurry,” Will said this morning on the “This Week” roundtable. “I do not know why, given that Mitt Romney knew the day that [John] McCain lost in 2008 that he was going to run for president again that he didn’t get all of this out and tidy up some of his offshore accounts and all the rest.”
"Tidy up" indeed, George. Such a bothersome little mess to keep stepping over, during a Presidential race.
More fromABCNews:
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley, in an interview with ABC News today, called on presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney to release his tax returns in order to show voters that he has “nothing to hide.”
Bentley said that Romney’s refusal to release more returns has created a “distraction” that Democrats were successfully exploiting.
“I just believe in total transparency,” Bentley told ABC News at the National Governors Association conference. “In fact, I was asked today that question — do you think that Governor Romney should release his tax returns? And I said I do.
Over to
Yahoo News (9 hours ago):
Asked on the sidelines of the National Governor’s Association annual meeting about their diagnosis of Mitt Romney’s campaign, the Republican governors had all kinds of advice for the candidate who comes from their ranks, from release-those-tax-returns-already to give-us-more-specifics.
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley found himself in hot water for perhaps a little too much candor when he said Romney would do well to release more tax returns, as Democrats have demanded in recent weeks. “I think he ought to release everything. I believe in total transparency,” Bentley told reporters. “You know if you have things to hide, then you may be doing things wrong.”
So, here's the running list, as I have been able to ascertain. I'm sure there are others.
Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX)
Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC)
Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R)
Former RNC Chairman Michael Steele
ABC News’ George Will
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley (and, presumably other GOP governors)
Fox News Sunday, conservative Bill Kristol
John Weaver, a veteran Republican strategist
Gov. Chris Christie (from Jan. this year)
Mark McKinnon - GOP Political Adviser (prepped Palin for debate)
If you provide any, please give a link to the story.
Thanks!
And now, something for a chuckle:
Romney has been slow to react, but finally went up with an ad decrying Democratic attacks as false on Thursday. He told FOX News’s Neil Cavuto on Wednesday that he preferred to stay on offense.
“Well, I of course respond to the attacks which come,” Romney said. “But you know, they say in politics, if you’re responding, you’re losing. I think the better course for our campaign is to respond to the attacks as being completely off-base.”
Notice, Mitt didn't say, "the attacks as being completely off-base" He said, "
I think the better course for our campaign is to respond to the attacks as being completely off-base."
The stench of the habitual liar isn't hard to smell. Even from this distance.
Just for fun..........let's give David Axelrod the final word:
“I’m not suggesting that based on what we know, that he’s done anything illegal,” Axelrod said. “But what I am suggesting is that he’s taken advantage of every single conceivable tax shelter loophole that we can see. And now is he the guy that’s gonna clean up our tax code and make it advantageous to average taxpayers and the country? Or is he gonna look at it through the lens of his own experience?”
B-I-N-G-O.....................They say his name is BINGO!!
UPDATE: from jaywillie, we have some additions:
Mark McKinnon
"I think it's pretty obvious there is something in the records that is problematic or the Romney campaign would have turned them over by now," he said.
John Weaver
“There is no whining in politics. Stop demanding an apology, release your tax returns.” — John Weaver, a veteran Republican strategist
Christ Christie (this is from January)
“The way I’ve conducted myself in my public life all along is I’ve released all of my tax returns. I did it during the campaign, went back a number of years, and I release them every year after I file them to the public of New Jersey so they can see everything. I think that’s the right way to go and that’s what I’d tell Gov. Romney to do,” he said.