On Clinton’s Tax Returns, a “Frankly Disturbing” Lack of Transparency, and Surrogate-ancholy

Some questions that every democrat in St. Louis (or voter) should be asking about the Clintons, summarized in a nice article by Arianna Huffington.

It’s hard out there for a surrogate. Especially for a Clinton surrogate being asked why Hillary Clinton has not released the last eight years of her tax returns. As Congresswoman and Clinton surrogate Nita Lowey made clear on Meet The Press yesterday, the reason it’s so hard to give a good answer to “Why hasn’t Clinton released her returns?” is because there is no good answer.

Lowry gave it a shot, but it wasn’t pretty — or particularly intelligible. When Tim Russert asked about the returns, she opened with the main talking point the Clinton campaign has been using for weeks: “It’s my understanding that there are 20 years of tax returns in the public view from both Bill and Hillary Clinton.”

And she’s exactly right. There are 20 years worth of returns that have been released. What’s missing are the last 8 years — years in which Bill Clinton has been making money hand over fist, and involving himself in all kinds of interesting financial deals (see Ron Burkle, Yucaipa, and the ruler of Dubai).

Lowry then quickly pivoted away from tax returns (clearly the 20 year line, as lame as it is, was the only arrow in her quiver) to make points about earmarks and the terrific work Bill Clinton’s foundation has done on HIV/AIDS in Africa — neither of which Russert had asked her about or have anything to do with tax returns.

Now, Nita Lowey is no slouch. She’s smart and accomplished. But when you are sent into battle armed with little more than nonsensical blather, you are not going to end up looking very good. And Lowry didn’t. And she seemed to know it — her eyes belied a classic case of surrogatancholy.

Hillary Clinton has repeatedly paired herself with John McCain as of late, making the case that they are candidates with a “lifetime of experience,” so it seems appropriate that her refusal to release her tax returns is another thing they have in common.

Read Entire Article at Huffington Post