Republican Party Leader Calls Sen. Harry Reid (D, Nv) a ‘Dirty Liar’ for Claiming Mitt Romney Paid No Income Taxes for 10 Years

Would It Be Okay if He Were a Clean Liar?

Republicans continue to stick their foot in their collective mouths as they combat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s accusation that a credible source has told him that Mitt Romney has paid no income taxes for the 10 years previous to 2010.  This Forum has commented earlier that the charge is almost impossible to be correct and that Mr. Reid is following in the estimable (?) footsteps of people like Rush Limbaugh in making the accusation.

We also commented that the best thing that Republicans and Mr. Romney could do would be to ignore the charge, laugh it off and go on about their business.  This is because the only way to refute the charge is for Mr. Romney to release his tax returns, something he has said he will not do and now cannot do for fear of losing whatever remains of his miniscule supply of credibility.

So the more Republicans bring up the issue, the more it works against them, but apparently they are just too politically naïve to know this.  First of all keeping the issue alive puts Mr. Romney at the same level as a Senator, when what he really wants to be is at the same level as the President.  Secondly, all it does is continue to raise the question of why Mr. Romney doesn’t just release the records and put an end to all this.  Does he have something to hide?  We don’t think so, but Mr. Romney is sure working hard to create that impression.

The latest Republican to make news on the issue is party leader Rience Preibus.

“As far as Harry Reid is concerned, listen. . . .I’m not going to respond to a dirty liar who hasn’t filed a single page of tax returns himself. Complains about people with money but lives in the Ritz-Carlton here down the street,” Priebus said. “. . . This is just a made-up issue. And the fact that we’re going to spend any time talking about it is ridiculous.”

This of course is political hilarity in the first degree.  The issue is being kept alive by people like Mr. Priebus who create headlines by continuing to talk about the issue in incendiary terms.

Republicans, there’s another line in the famous Kenny Rogers song.  You Romney people need to ‘know when to hold em, know when to fold em’ and what you really need to know is to ‘know when to shut up’.  But since you don’t, thanks for entertaining the rest of us.