What's Good For The Goose
It's Tax Day, so Hillary Clinton's campaign sought to make hay this a.m. over Barack Obama's failure to release a handful of past tax returns filed while he was an IL state senator. The missing docs: 1997, 1998 and 1999.
"Despite his rhetoric, Sen. Obama doesn't abide by the standards he sets for others," reads the Clinton's camp's memo of the day, available in full after the jump. " ... During this period of time, Sen. Obama was accepting contributions from special interest lobbyists, PACs and even directly from corporations."
Last week, HRC, of course, dumped the last seven years of her joint returns.
To: Interested Parties
From: The Clinton Campaign
Date: April 15, 2008
RE: Tax Day Test: Is Sen. Obama As Transparent As He Claims?
For all of Sen. Obama's rhetoric about the need for tax return transparency, you'd think he'd have released all of his tax records. Guess again.
For weeks, Sen. Obama and his campaign relentlessly demanded that Hillary release all of her tax returns even though 20-years of them were already publicly available. His campaign held an endless string of conference calls, issued press releases and flooded the airwaves with surrogates attacking Hillary for not immediately releasing the returns for the last few years she has been in public life.
Sen. Obama said the American people "deserve to know where you get your income from," stressing the need for "full transparency" and bragging that his campaign has "set the bar."
Well, Hillary released tax returns earlier this month and is now the only candidate in this race who has made thirty years worth of tax returns public.
But despite his rhetoric, Sen. Obama doesn't abide by the standards he sets for others.
Sen. Obama has refused to release his tax returns for 1997, 1998 and 1999, even though he was in public life as a state senator during those years. During this period of time, Sen. Obama was accepting contributions from special interest lobbyists, PACs and even directly from corporations.
In fact, Sen. Obama has a habit of demanding higher standards of transparency for others than for himself. The National Archives has released hundreds of thousands of pages of documents from Hillary's years as first lady, including her entire schedule. Throughout the campaign, Sen. Obama has demanded Hillary release more documents, even though they are not under her control. Meanwhile, Sen. Obama refuses to release any documents that are more than three years old. At first, Sen. Obama and his campaign told the press that he had records from his state senate years. Later, he said he threw them all out.
Whether it's tax returns or legislative records or his relationship with indicted political fixer Tony Rezko, Senator Obama seems to take "the dog ate my homework" approach to disclosure.
When it comes to transparency, the only thing transparent about Senator Obama is his claim to be transparent.
Oh please, will you just lay off this topic? It's FAKE news.
Just like the so-called "Rezko relationship." More FAKE news.
Sorry to disappoint all you dirt-diggers out there, but apparently Obama's supposed "relationship" with Rezko isn't what you'd think. Reporters have earnestly looked for scumbag malfeasance between the two as evidence of Obama's presumed hypocrisy for years. Dozens of articles have been written on it by all the major Chicago papers; dozens of blog entries have postulated and pontificated on it. The verdict? FAKE news. Why can't you guys just get over it and accept the reality that, Gee, maybe there really is "No there there"? Better yet, take it from the Chi Trib (the paper that has probably devoted more column space to the subject) -- here's what the Ed Board wrote after Obama's 90-minute interview with them back in March:
"Obama's critics have waited 16 months for some new and cataclysmic Rezko moment to implicate and doom Obama. It hasn't happened.
When we endorsed Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination Jan. 27, we said we had formed our opinions of him during 12 years of scrutiny. We concluded that the professional judgment and personal decency with which he has managed himself and his ambition distinguish him.
Nothing Obama said in our editorial board room Friday diminishes that verdict."
www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0316edit1mar16,0,2616801.story
So please stop peddling this sort of FAKE news, and apply your considerable talents and resources to reporting on the stuff that really matters.
It's always fake news when it's about Obama.....real news when it's about anyone else. What's wrong.....can't he finish her off yet??? The longer she's around the worse he looks.
Yeah, I guess that's why the longer he's around the more her margins shrink... that makes real sense, Kefa.
The formerly inevitable candidate -- the frontrunner who started out with double-digit leads and the organizational and financial advantage of national, state & local party support -- continues to appeal to a sizable, reliable voting base (women; older working class), therefore she has a legitimate reason to hang on.
"Finishing her off" as you suggest would entail a kind of fratricide, which, to his credit, Obama has thus far wisely rejected.
Furthermore, the factors relating to the apples-to-apples choice of the prolonged Democratic primary challenge are irrelevant to those that will factor in the apples-to-lemons choice in the upcoming general election race between the Democrat and John McCain.
Interesting how you take Obama's side in this. When Obama wanted Clinton's tax returns, he didn't shut up about it. Now she wants to see a few missing from his, and he refuses to release them? well, I think Obama should practice what he preaches. People in glass homes shouldn't throw stones.
Those clinton returns were for RECENT YEARS after the clinton Presidency and dealing with the 'rewards' from NAFTA and China and the Saudi's...Interestingly, they are still hiding most of the illgot dollars....Wonder if the Obama returns would prove remotely interesting..we might find out how much their student loans were!!!!Reviting
i'm glad they brought this up. he is not as transparent as he acts.