A Low Blow to the Glass Chin

Senate Majority Leader and Pugilist, Harry Reid of Nevada

Harry Reid played some really dirty politics by referencing a "reliable" anonymous source that Romney won't release his tax returns because he paid no tax for ten years. Mitt Romney played some really stupid politics by responding to Reid, "Put up or shut up!"

Uh. Think about that for a minute. Governor Romney's response to allegedly false charges about what is in the income tax returns he refuses to release is "put up or shut up?" Besides, that's not the guy he's supposed to be fighting. I think Governor Romney just fell for a sucker punch.

Harry could very well be wrong. Governor Romney probably paid some taxes, maybe at least as much as the 13.9% effective rate on capital gains (no personal salary income) he paid in 2010. But the former Governor won't say how much. There's no law that says he has to reveal his taxes. He's probably right that everything was perfectly legal as certified by his accountants.

But then, Harry the Pugilist could also be right in the sense that Governor Romney paid no income tax because he had no personal salary income. Bain supposedly wasn't paying him salary - just retroactive retirement or something constructed as capital gains. That could all still be perfectly legal.

It kind of reminds me of the election of 1800 with our Founding Fathers throwing dirty political punches and fighting it out in rather ugly fashion. Look it up sometime. It could be that in 200 or so years we'll be calling Reid and Romney statesmen too.

Gotta love political freedoms!