So Mitt, what are you hiding in those tax returns?

By Michael J.W. Stickings

You want to see Mitt Romney's tax returns? Well, Mitt Romney won't let you see them -- not more than two years' worth anyway:

Mitt Romney on Friday said he will release only two years of tax returns.

"We've complied with the law," Romney told CNN. "The law requires us to put out a full financial disclosure. That I've done. I know there will always be calls for more, people always want to get more, and, you know, we're putting out what is required plus more that is not required, and those are the two years that people are going to have."

"That's all that's necessary for people to understand something about my finances," Romney added.

Well, no, that's not all that's necessary. He may be complying with the law, but he's obviously hiding something, likely lots of somethings. And even if he isn't, there's the perception that he is, and that fits in with the general view of Mitt Romney that he's hiding things from public view, that he has a lot to hide, and that he's being rather less than forthcoming with the truth.

Add this to his secretive tax shelters in the Caymans and his Swiss bank accounts, his rather less than forthcoming account of what he did while running Bain Capital, how he made his fortune doing things like outsourcing jobs, his ridiculous claim that he left Bain in 1999, his even more ridiculous claim that had nothing to do with it thereafter, refuted by SEC filings among other evidence, his various flips and flops on any number of issues, his shameless pandering and apparent lack of principle, his reputation for being a privileged rich douchebag, and so much else besides -- add all this together and you get a picture of a man whom Americans should trust about as far as each voter individually can throw his wife's two Cadillacs.

Two years of tax returns? Sorry, that's not going to cut it. Not even close.