Political pro tip: Don't mock your opponent's spouse's therapy as she battles a cruel, debilitating illness. Got that, DNC?
At issue is a DNC video featuring footage of Ann Romney’s dancing show horse. The DNC used the horse in mocking way to attack Mitt Romney for not releasing his tax returns (and dancing around the issue). The DNC introduced the video as the first in a series of videos featuring Mrs. Romney’s horse. Ann Romney, who trains with the horse as part of her therapy for multiple sclerosis, took offense in an interview with Robin Roberts on Good Morning America, and now the DNC is pulling the video, expressing regret for offending Mrs. Romney. “Our use of the Romneys’ dressage horse was not meant to offend Mrs. Romney in any way, and we regret it if it did,” DNC spokesman Brad Woodhouse tells ABC News.
Here's the ad, which commits the double sin of being both offensive and unfunny (we'll see how long it lasts on YouTube):
On the tax issue, I've already had my say on whether Romney should release more returns, but now House Democrats are moving to offer legislation compelling him to do so. Senate Dems are getting in on the action, too. This from the crew that hasn't even attempted to introduce a budget for three years -- something they are legally required to do, unlike presidential candidates releasing tax returns:
In the House, Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.) is proposing legislation that would require presidential candidates to release 10 years worth of tax returns and disclose any overseas investments. And in the Senate, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich) are proposing beefing up financial disclosure forms for all candidates for federal office to require disclosure of overseas investments, including Swiss bank accounts.
That's your shot. Here's the chaser, with a twist of hypocrisy:
Rep. Nancy Pelosi was emphatic. Mitt Romney’s refusal to release more than two years of his personal tax returns, she said, makes him unfit to win confirmation as a member of the president’s Cabinet, let alone to hold the high office himself. Sen. Harry Reid went farther: Romney’s refusal to make public more of his tax records makes him unfit to be a dogcatcher. They do not, however, think that standard of transparency should apply to them. The two Democratic leaders of the Senate and the House of Representatives are among hundreds of senators and representatives from both parties who refused to release their tax records. Just 17 out of the 535 members of Congress released their most recent tax forms or provided some similar documentation of their tax liabilities in response to requests from McClatchy over the last three months. Another 19 replied that they wouldn’t release the information, and the remainder never responded to the query.
Keep this in mind as Congressional Democrats continue to wail about Romney's taxes. Parting thought: What's the argument for why a presidential candidate should release his taxes, but high ranking Congressional leaders should not?
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