Mitt Romney is taking a beating only a red-headed step-child could fully understand. And he’s taking it from conservatives who want nothing to do with his obfuscation and lack of transparency.

Said [George] Will: “If something’s going to come out, get it out in a hurry. I do not know why, given that Mitt Romney knew the day that McCain lost in 2008 that he was going to run for president again that he didn’t get all of this out and tidy up some of his offshore accounts and all the rest. The cost of not releasing the returns are clear. Therefore, he must have calculated that there are higher costs in releasing them.”

GOP strategist Matthew Dowd had a similar view: “There’s obviously something there, because if there was nothing there, he would say, ‘Have at it.’ So there’s obviously something there that compromises what he said in the past about something.”

Meanwhile, William Kristol told Fox News: “He should release the tax returns tomorrow. It’s crazy. You gotta release six, eight, 10 years of back tax returns. Take the hit for a day or two.”

Hell, even the governor of Alabama thinks that Romney should release his tax returns, even if he’s kind of waffling about the issue.

If Mitt Romney thought the Republican Establishment or the base was going to have his back on this, he was obviously mistaken. So, what can we conclude from this? Why are high-powered Republican commentators and politicians knee-capping their nominee in such a public manner?

Don’t be tempted to believe that these folks are standing up for principle. I know you can’t be that stupid. They’re probably in two camps. The first camp thinks Romney is merely making a miscalculation and they think they’re offering him savvy political advice. The second camp knows why Romney isn’t releasing his tax returns and they’ve given up on him winning the election. They’re straight-up saying that Romney’s hiding something so devastating that he’s unelectable. They just want to disassociate themselves from him and hope that he doesn’t have negative coattails on House and Senate races.

William Kristol is in the first (stupid) category. George Will and Matt Dowd are in the latter (smart) category.

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