UPDATE 1: Harry Reid: "He Paid No Taxes!"
UPDATE
2: What Would Gore Vidal Say?
Forget
the ridiculous gaffs abroad committed by a diplomatic dimwit. We experienced it
all before with George Bush. Tabloid headlines screaming "Mitt the
Twit" were not as bad as the summit during which Bush was so badly
shunned, he hung his head down in despair for a long time. After all, Mitt
Romney hasn't threatened half the world, started a war on specious reasoning,
and ruined whole economies by deregulating everything ...
...
yet.
WASHINGTON
-- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has what he says is an informed
explanation for why Mitt Romney refuses to release additional tax returns.
According a Bain investor, Reid charged, Romney didn't pay any taxes for 10
years.
In
a wide-ranging interview with The Huffington Post from his office on Capitol
Hill, Reid saved some of his toughest words for the presumptive Republican
presidential nominee. Romney couldn't make it through a Senate confirmation
process as a mere Cabinet nominee, the majority leader insisted, owing to the opaqueness
of his personal finances .
Reid also said that with his lack of financial disclosure and
credentials, he "couldn't be elected dogcatcher."
Harry Reid's disclosure seems, perhaps, to be simply another item
on the list of Romney's rather immoral faults. But it may lie at the core of a
more important issue: Romney's innate immorality. That immorality involves
his condescension, his secrecy regarding his finances, his lies about his
involvement with Bain, his consistent pandering in whatever wind to obtain
votes.
The Romney image - if indeed there is a cohesive one - is built
upon the false front of an entrepreneur who knows how to run a successful
business and can therefore put America on the road to full economic recovery.
It is certainly not built upon his tenure as governor of Massachusetts.
That arena of expertise has been sidestepped from the start.* And sidestepping
issues in an important political campaign can be as immoral as any lie.
What Would Vidal Say?
The
most wonderful liberal of our time, Gore Vidal, passed away at the age of 86.
He was the iconoclast who was also an anomaly: the quintessential patrician who
hated rich conservatives. He was far above any who tried to best him in an
intellectual debate. Indeed, William F. Buckley, the doyenne of conservative
politics became frustrated by his inflammatory but astute rhetoric.** (see the
infamous debate below).
While
he obviously chimed in about the upcoming Presidential race, no quotes about
Romney are readily available (I tried). But what he has said in the past might
just as well be used (and pertain to Romney) today:
- The more
money an American accumulates, the less interesting he becomes.
- That loyal retainer of
the Chase Manhattan Bank, the American president.
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