Step Away from the Shovel, Mitt

First of all, why in the world should we believe Republican president-wannabe Willard Mitt Romney when he claims that he “never paid less than 13 percent” in taxes over the last 10 years? He’s already shown himself to be an unrepentant serial liar. Why should we start believing him now?

Really, it’s only by releasing more than a paltry two years of his tax returns that voters will have a chance to judge whether they contain anything embarrassing or even nefarious. But Romney appears disinclined to do more than say “trust me” on this matter, which leads to this comment from Washington Monthly’s Ed Kilgore:

If he intends to gut it out and never release his tax returns, he might be better off just saying “It’s none of your damn business, and if I’d done anything wrong, the IRS would have locked me in leg-irons by now.” This drip-drip-drip of undocumented assertions raises a lot more questions than it answers.

Mitt reminds me of a guy I once knew who was asked in a job interview about his religious practices, which were somewhere between non-existent and hey-I-listen-to-Christmas-music! Instead of admitting that, he kept making excuses to the interviewer (who pretty much thought everyone should be forced to go to church weekly) about his busy schedule and good intentions and so on and so forth. He didn’t get the job, but talked about the interview, and soon gained the nickname of “Digger.” Mitt’s a “digger,” too.

Read more of Kilgore’s post here.

READ MORE: “Mitt Romney’s ‘Just Trust Me’ Campaign,” by Greg Sargent (The Washington Post).