White House: Sen. Reid 'speaks for himself' on Romney tax returns

[WestVirginiaRebel]

The Hill:

The White House on Monday distanced President Obama from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s comments that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney hasn’t paid taxes in a decade.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said on Monday that Reid (D-Nev.) “speaks for himself” and had spoken on the issue without any guidance from Team Obama.

“He certainly speaks for himself,” Carney said, adding that Obama hasn't expressed an opinion on Reid's recent comments.

But Carney said Reid’s comments speak to a “broader question” about the president’s views on income taxes, saying that a “tradition” which “has been in place since 1968 of candidates for the president releasing multiple years of their tax returns is an important one.”

“You know, it’s not always every candidate’s favorite part of the process, but it’s a tradition that’s important,” Carney said. “It’s valuable to the American people as they decide who should be president. So that’s why the president has put forward his financial information, his tax returns when he was a candidate, and believes that that’s an important tradition.

In an interview last week, Reid claimed a Bain Capitol investor told him Romney had not paid any taxes in 10 years. That’s why, Reid said, Romney has refused to release more than the roughly two years' worth of tax returns he's already shared.

________

 

The blowback from unfounded allegations continues.

[Valin]

@WestVirginiaRebel

 

 

 

Carlos my invisible friend told me about this...so it must be true. He told me he never ever lies.

[Draggingtree]

All Carney really said was we are covering our tracks

[Valin]

All Carney really said was we are covering our tracks

 

Translation: When this fails Harry, and the whole world is laughing at you...don't call us...we'll call you.

[Draggingtree]

Cohen: Harry Reid is exactly what’s wrong with Washington; Update: WH distancing itself from Reid?

 

posted at 1:11 pm on August 6, 2012 by Ed Morrissey

 

 

Earlier today, I noted that George Will had ripped Harry Reid for his baseless accusations of tax evasion thrown at Mitt Romney, even from the Senate floor, calling it “McCarthyism from the desert.” Will is a conservative commentator, of course, so it’s perhaps unsurprising to see him aggressively attacking Reid. What do liberal commentators think of Harry Reid? Richard Cohen is Will’s colleague at the Washington Post, and Cohen leaps to Reid’s defense*:

For Reid, this is yet another brazen and tasteless partisan attack. As majority leader, he has managed to sink the public image of the Senate even lower than it would otherwise be. He contributes to bad feelings, gridlock and the sense — nay, the reality — that everything is done for political advantage. Reid is a crass man, the very personification of the gaudy and kitschy Las Vegas Strip.

Still, he is not some backbencher, but the Senate majority leader. He is the face of the Democratic Party in the read more http://hotair.com/archives/2012/08/06/cohen-harry-reid-is-exactly-whats-wrong-with-washington/

[Valin]

@Draggingtree

 

I could be wrong, but I bet there will be some personal changes on Dingy Harry's staff sometime in the coming weeks.

[pollyannaish]

All Carney really said was we are covering our tracks

 

True. They actually know what's in them and they don't want to be in the way if Romney calls their bluff.