Mediaite reports:
On Monday, Politico’s Mike Allen told Morning Joe about the Obama campaign’s plans to look into “Romney’s penchant for secrecy,” noting that the campaign’s communications director , David Axelrod, has asked such questions as “Why did George Bush and John McCain release multiple years of tax returns, but not Mitt Romney? Why did Mitt Romney leave Massachusetts government with the hard drives from his computers, and why did his senior aides leave with the hard drives from their computers? Why won’t he be more forthcoming about some of these offshore investments?”
Panelist Jon Meacham asked whether any of the focus on Romney’s “secrecy” may have something to do with his faith, Mormonism, a religion shrouded in mystery for many non-Mormons. “Is this code for the secrecy of the Mormon Church?” he asked Allen.
“As the Obama campaign makes the case that Romney is somehow weird, different,” Allen replied, “some supporters of Romney will say that that is a dog whistle, that is a way to come near the religion issue. The Obama campaign will tell you they’re not going to touch it, they don’t poll on it, they don’t talk about it in focus groups because they know that it would blow up if they did and that got public.”
Yeah, right — not releasing tax returns = Mormon, according to Democrats. That’s why you had this a couple of days ago:
As the President releases his tax returns for the past 12 years, Democrats are calling for Mitt Romney to share more than just his 2010 returns, which showed he paid around 15% in taxes.
Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer believes the public is entitled to know about his past financial activities, including overseas investments….
Former Michigan Governor George Romney, set a standard many years ago by providing 12 years worth of tax statements, and others have done likewise.
Brewer would like to see Romney’s tax returns for 12 years as well, exactly what his father George released many years ago as a candidate.
And this a few months ago:
Today, [former Democratic] Governor Ted Strickland held a press conference call to urge quarter-billionaire Mitt Romney … to follow the example set by his father George Romney and release 12 years of tax returns before the Ohio primary on March 6. George Romney, who ran for President in 1968, was the first-ever presidential candidate to release his tax returns. He released 12 years of tax returns instead of just one….
Democrats attack Mitt Romney’s secrecy while praising the transparency of his father. Since they’re talking about Mitt’s secrecy as a devious, sneaky way to call him a Mormon, they must think George belonged to some other church.
Yeah, that must be it.
(X-posted at No More Mister Nice Blog.)
So MorningJoe(and who watches that anyway?!?) has on a failed elite and the son of a Bircher? Good to know!
we all get to pretend that Mormonism is not strange while we are accused of calling it strange.
So much fun.
sounds to me that the media WANTS to talk about R-Money’s Mormonism, but the Obama campaign and Romney camp are all at least in front of cameras and on paper are not taking the bait.
Betcha, all it will take in one inartful statement from another “strategist” or “pundit” for the media to latch onto as an excuse to discuss Mormon religion.
Just like they use ANY case involving “Black” or minority news/issue of the day to get WH and Obama camp to comment on.
I mean what reporter would have asked GWB or Romney what they thought of Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift????
I like it that Dems are comparing Mitt to his father. As well as having more integrity, George Romney was practically a Democrat by today’s standards.
I love the comparisons to the old man Romney too. it’s obvious Willard comes up lacking.
George Romney may prove to be Mitt’s worst flip flop. Honor thy Father Mitt.
Couple of things:
Your Diary title; “… Romney was a Mormon”- should read “…Romney is a Mormon”.
Using the word “was” makes it appear Romney recently converted to Southern Baptist- which is what many repug voters would like to see happen, but– it’s not going to.
Next, I don’t get what Romney’s religion, Mormon or otherwise, has to do with his reluctance to make his tax returns public.
Romney’s income, which he has made clear comes from his capital investments, not a salary or wage like most of us shmucks- is a huge negative for him. He’s obviously a one percenter- trying to get support from the 99 percenters- many of who aren’t doing well economically.
It’s no surprise he’s not willing to be transparent regarding his income and amount of federal taxes he is paying on that income.
It’s much more of a political/class issue, not religious.
Obama and his people are grasping at straws here.. frustrating for them having to go after his religion this way- since they can’t exploit the whole Mormon “elders wearing special underwear” thing or the fact Mormons think they can baptize the dead.
The Obama admin can’t do that- and still claim to be tolerant regarding religious choice.
I predict this meme will dropped soon.
Meanwhile Mr. Axelrod can afford this:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-axelrod-buys-17-million-michigan-ave-condo-20120
416,0,7002704.story
Very bad move politically, c’mon!!! Limpbaugh and all of the hacks will be all over this like a bad suit.
You did see the “George” in front of that Romney in the title, didn’t you? Because, I’m guessing that would be the reason for the “was.” As in; George Romney was a Mormon, but we no longer speak of him in the present tense because he’s dead now.
No- I did not see that.
Appears the diarist edited the title.
Regardless, my point remains: Mitt Romney’s reluctance to release his financial info has much more to do with politics than his religion.
No, I never edited the title. You read it wrong.
Mike Allen is congenitally incapable of judging an argument on its merits; it’s almost like he has some form of brain damage that leads him to reduce everything to “both sides do it.” He was on Lawrence O’Donnell the other night. Check this exchange; simply unbelievable:
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/the-last-word/46973490#46973490
[O’Donnell] mike, tell us what’s going on here. they are suddenly very, very upset that a president actually quoting republicans — not saying — he was using the republican phrase about them being unelected saying this is what you guys used to say. and they can’t take it when he says that.
[Allen] well both sides here are working the refs the ultimate — the ultimate swing vote . here you just have one vote on the margins. I think the president also would take back some of what he said. there’s going to be plenty of time in —
[O’Donnell] a little bit —
[Allen] yeah, he has. and there’ll be plenty of time in july to talk about why this was a mistake. i think they were trying to build in some insurance. they maybe had a bad feeling about where this was headed. but you don’t know where it’s headed and this court doesn’t like to be strong armed. but i don’t think it helps to have maureen dowd said that they were extremists in black robes either.
I honestly didn’t know back in the 60’s that George Romney was a Mormon. The media didn’t dwell on it. In fact, the media made a much bigger thing of him saying he had been brainwashed by the military on Vietnam.
I don’t think the media wanted Vietnam to end. It sold a lot of air space.