{"id":35493,"date":"2012-01-23T08:04:15","date_gmt":"2012-01-23T15:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=35493"},"modified":"2012-01-23T16:00:53","modified_gmt":"2012-01-23T23:00:53","slug":"romney-hasn%e2%80%99t-given-the-public-reason-to-trust-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2012\/01\/romney-hasn%e2%80%99t-given-the-public-reason-to-trust-him\/","title":{"rendered":"Romney hasn\u2019t given the public reason to trust him"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_35494\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignright\" style=\"max-width: 270px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-35494\" title=\"heath-horizontal-112\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/heath-horizontal-1121.jpeg\" alt=\"Heath Haussamen\" width=\"270\" height=\"256\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Heath Haussamen<\/p><\/div>\n<h4>To earn the public\u2019s trust, Mitt Romney must demonstrate a commitment to openness. Between his efforts to keep records from his time as governor secret and his wishy-washy and flip-floppy statements on releasing tax returns, he hasn\u2019t done it yet.<\/h4>\n<p>At the end of his tenure as governor of Massachusetts, <a href=\"http:\/\/mittromney.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Mitt Romney<\/a> spent nearly $100,000 in state money to replace computers in his office so he could <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/world\/2011\/dec\/06\/romney-state-funds-replace-computers-massachusetts\" target=\"_blank\">keep records on the old computers secret<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Staffers personally bought the old hard drives to get them out of public hands. They also had e-mails and other electronic communications wiped from state servers \u2013 something that was unusual in Massachusetts and might be illegal in New Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>I was shocked when I learned about that situation in December. It\u2019s much worse than what former N.M. Gov. Bill Richardson did when he left office \u2013 passing his office\u2019s records to the state archives center in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/02\/thanks-to-ag-for-getting-richardson%E2%80%99s-records-released\/\" target=\"_blank\">a failed attempt<\/a> to keep them secret.<\/p>\n<p>Now come the GOP presidential nomination frontrunner\u2019s wishy-washy and flip-floppy statements on whether he will release his tax returns. He currently says he will release his 2010 return and a 2011 estimate on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>The Chicago Tribune has published a list of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/news\/sns-rt-us-usa-campaign-romney-tax-timelinetre80g2do-20120117,0,6555667.story\" target=\"_blank\">Romney\u2019s past statements<\/a> about whether he would release his returns. It started with \u201cWe\u2019ll take a look at the question\u201d on October 25, moved to \u201cI don\u2019t intend to release the tax returns\u201d on December 21 (with a \u201cbut never say never\u201d the next day), to \u201cAnd if I become our nominee, and what\u2019s happened in history is people have released them in about April of the coming year, and that\u2019s probably what I would do\u201d last week.<\/p>\n<p>Then on Sunday, the day after he lost the South Carolina primary, Romney changed course again in agreeing to release the 2010 and 2011 information, but said he has no plans to release past returns. He played down the fact that he once said he didn\u2019t plan to release his returns at all.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe just made a mistake in holding off as long as we did,\u201d Romney <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/mitt-romney-to-release-tax-returns-tuesday\/2012\/01\/22\/gIQA7VLbIQ_story.html?tid=pm_politics_pop\" target=\"_blank\">said on Fox News<\/a>. \u201cIt just was a distraction.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But his past statements are on the record, and the progression has been stunning: He went from \u2013 my words, not his \u2013 \u201cI don\u2019t plan to do it,\u201d to \u201cI\u2019ll do it, but not until I have the GOP nomination in the bag.\u201d Then, only after a victory by another GOP primary candidate became conceivable, did he agree to be transparent.<\/p>\n<p>This from a guy who made sure the public could never see his office\u2019s records when he left his job as governor of Massachusetts. What does he not want the public to know?<\/p>\n<h3>Romney\u2019s father set precedent of openness<\/h3>\n<p>This comment Romney <a href=\"http:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/blogs\/politics\/2012\/01\/mitt-romney-says-hell-probably-release-multiple-years-of-tax-returns\/\" target=\"_blank\">made during Thursday\u2019s debate<\/a> about releasing returns in April \u2013 which came before he lost South Carolina \u2013 is most concerning (you\u2019ll see another bit of a flop in it, because he has whittled \u201cmultiple years\u201d down to one plus an estimate for another):<!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cI\u2019ll release multiple years, I don\u2019t know how many years. But I\u2019ll be happy to do that. I know there are some who are anxious to see if they can make it difficult for a campaign to be successful. I know the Democrats want to go after my being successful. I\u2019m not going to apologize for being successful.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This isn\u2019t about whether Romney is successful. He shouldn\u2019t apologize for that. It\u2019s about the public understanding how he makes his money and what he does with it so people can know about his potential conflicts of interest.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s about the public being able to scrutinize Romney\u2019s financial ties before deciding whether to make him the most powerful public official in the world at a time when money has so much influence over Washington.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s about demonstrating to the American people that he intends to be open and honest with them and worthy of their trust, as every president has done since Nixon (and FDR did almost a century ago).<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s something that many nominees and other presidential candidates have done, including Romney\u2019s father when he ran for president. In fact, according to <a href=\"http:\/\/content.usatoday.com\/communities\/onpolitics\/post\/2012\/01\/romneys-father-released-12-years-of-tax-returns\/1\" target=\"_blank\">this article<\/a>, George Romney\u2019s release of 12 years of returns in 1967 was \u201ca move believed to be without precedent in American politics.\u201d He set a new bar for openness that continues today.<\/p>\n<p>You can find all of President Barack Obama\u2019s tax returns since 2000 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.taxhistory.org\/www\/website.nsf\/web\/presidentialtaxreturns\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>. You\u2019ll also find Vice President Joe Biden\u2019s since 1998, and tax returns for McCain, Palin, Bush the younger, Cheney, Clinton, Bush the elder, Reagan, Carter, Nixon and FDR by clicking on that link.<\/p>\n<p>Those presidents and candidates all sent the message that they would be open, honest, and worthy of Americans\u2019 trust. Certainly, some of them didn\u2019t live up to that pledge (with Nixon probably being the worst). But at least they started off by setting the right tone. That\u2019s a positive step.<\/p>\n<p>Romney hasn\u2019t sent that message, and his reluctant release on Tuesday of fewer than the \u201cmultiple\u201d years he promised days ago isn\u2019t going to change that. He needs to match Obama\u2019s release of tax returns going back to 2000. And he needs to publicly apologize for the hiding of records from his tenure as governor (of course, to be convincing, he would need to be sincerely sorry he did that, and I\u2019ve seen no evidence of remorse).<\/p>\n<h3>Not an endorsement of any of the others<\/h3>\n<p>My criticism of Romney shouldn\u2019t be interpreted as a statement of support for any of the other guys. Obama has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/12\/americans-shouldn%E2%80%99t-be-detained-indefinitely\/\" target=\"_blank\">his own issues<\/a>, among them that he hasn\u2019t run as transparent an administration as he promised (see <a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/worldnews\/barackobama\/8848715\/Barack-Obama-accused-of-breaking-transparency-pledge.html\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wired.com\/threatlevel\/2011\/03\/obama-transparency-clouded\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB10001424052748703849204576303272813116318.html\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>). There are plenty of reasons to criticize the other GOP hopefuls as well.<\/p>\n<p>But regular readers of this site know about my passion for transparency \u2013 an issue I view as nonpartisan, and one that\u2019s at the core of government serving the people. Someone who wants to be president, and has a serious shot at getting the job, needs to demonstrate to the American people that he understands the importance of openness.<\/p>\n<p>If there\u2019s nothing the American people might find concerning \u2013 conflicts of interest, questions about how a presidential candidate earned his money, lenders to which he is financially beholden (the last isn\u2019t likely an issue for Romney), then releasing returns will make that clear. If there are things the public might find concerning, being open about them and taking the time to explain them is the best way to earn the public\u2019s trust.<\/p>\n<p>Romney shouldn\u2019t have to apologize for being one of the wealthiest people in America. But if he wants to be the most powerful elected official in the world, he should have to fully disclose the extent of his wealth, how he made it, and where he invests it.<\/p>\n<p>If he doesn\u2019t do that, there\u2019s no reason to trust him.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/haussamen\" target=\"_blank\">Haussamen bio<\/a>\u00a0\u2502\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/heath-haussamen\" target=\"_blank\">Commentary page<\/a>\u00a0\u2502\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/category\/haussamen-columns\/feed\" target=\"_blank\">Feed<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To earn the public\u2019s trust, Mitt Romney must demonstrate a commitment to openness. Between his efforts to keep records from his time as governor secret and his wishy-washy and flip-floppy statements on releasing tax returns, he hasn\u2019t done it yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,10],"tags":[156,111,226,116],"class_list":["post-35493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-haussamen-columns","tag-2012-election","tag-open-government","tag-presidential-race","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35493\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}