Sarah Palin turned over more than 7 years worth of tax returns to the McCain camp during the vetting process. Why haven't those tax returns been released to the public?
Correction to prior Update: According to Politico, Biden is putting out 10 years of tax returns Fri morning. The Obama campaign are going after McCain and Palin on the transparency issue big time!
Obama to Pressure McCain on Openness
Update #2: Some question the importance of a potential VP's tax returns. Selecting Sarah Palin was John McCain's first presidential-level decision. The VP has little to do officially but be a president-in-waiting. Palin was a total unknown two weeks ago. Knowing Palin's finances are above board is critical to knowing if she is an honest person who can be trusted with high office. We know how corrupt the polticial culture of her state is. We know about a very specific instance where she may have violated the law. From a strictly partisan standpoint, why would you not demand to see the returns that every other candidate has dutifully supplied?
According to this CBS article on Palin's vetting process, Sarah Palin submitted "more than seven years of tax returns" to the McCain camp.
These returns should be immediately released to the public.
If all we knew about Sarah Palin was that she was from Alaska, this would be enough reason to call for the returns' release. Two-thirds of the Alaskan congressional delegate is under criminal investigation. Ted Stevens, in particular, has supported Sarah Palin over the years, providing key introductions and endorsements and working closely with her on earmarks. She has never denounced his way of doing business, or the Alaskan culture of corruption. She hasn't asked Alaskans not to support Stevens' run for the Senate this year. Just knowing this much would be sufficient grounds for asking Sarah to come clean.
But we now know a lot more about Sarah Palin and her flexible and self-interested interpretation of the law. Law blogs such as taxprof already are making clear that, unless Palin declared the per diems she received for travel with her family as income, she could have problems with the IRS that will make her Troopergate worries seem incidental. (In addition, if she received per diems for travel to both Anchorage and Juneau, at least one set of those per diems would have to be declared as income, as well.)
Did Sarah properly account for her per diem income? Who knows? I doubt even the McCain camp knows. The vetting process was last-minute and rushed, and unless Palin brought the whole issue to their attention, a vetter would have no reason to suspect Palin of not reporting these most unusual if not unprecedented forms of gubernatorial income.
We also know that for Palin business and the political and personal have always comfortably mingled, if not been inextricably intertwined. She has a habit of hiring underqualified friends, political cronies and business partners, including people like Deborah Richter. It is highly unlikely that in all her time in office no one supporting Palin politically or doing business with her or the state ever did dubious, unethical or illegal favors for her in return.
There is no guarantee that evidence of such favors will turn up in Palin's 7+ years of returns. But given that Palin had no reason at the time to suspect a national-candidate level of scrutiny of her personal tax returns, there may well be clear signs of obvious shenanigans.
The McCain camp has only one reason to hold onto these returns: if they are ticking timebombs about to send the Straight Talk Express flying off the rails.
Voters and the media should demand the returns' release, or raise hell to know the reason why not.