I am sent or bump into crazy stuff about Obama all the time, He is a Socialist, He was born in Kenya, He is anti-American, and on and on. There is no way to argue with this kind of shit, let alone discuss it, so I sort of retreat into the fantasy of saying something equally stupid about Romney. Maybe, He is a polygamist would do it. I never actually do say anything like that because What is the point? I don’t believe it, I am sure that I am not going to convince anybody else, and somebody who thinks Obama was born in Kenya is a little unhinged anyway.

When Romney refused to release most of his back taxes, like alot of people, I wondered what he might be hiding. He seems he must be hiding something that would result in making him look even worse than refusing to release his taxes makes him look. Maybe not, though; maybe he is just stubborn. Maybe he got caught cheating and made a deal, maybe he paid so much he is embarrassed. Nobody really knows and what to say about it never entered my fantasy putdown pantheon.

Then along came Reid and his announcement that Romney paid No taxes during the period that he – Romney – won’t release his returns. Reid says he heard this from an anonymous source at Bain. This is really better than any of my fantasy putdowns.  The Romney camp – Romney, his surrogates, Republican politicians, right-wing pundits – understandably, but foolishly, has gone apoplectic. But there is no way to prove that Reid is lying without releasing Romney’s taxes.

If Reid is lying – and it is still an IF because we don’t really know the truth any more than we know it about Romney’s taxes – he is doing something that I should be condemning as immoral but I can’t help but admire. It is just too brilliant, tactically. First, even if we suspect he is lying, the only people that really know – besides Reid – are on the Romney side and Romney would have to release his taxes to prove that Reid is lying; then it has resulted in Romney being engaged in a fracas with somebody lower – politically – than Obama and that demeans Romney; because Reid is powerful enough to have a national soapbox from which to speak, it keeps the taxes question open and in the headlines; and Reid is in a different branch of government than Obama so Obama can’t, really, be held responsible.

The whole thing is just brilliant. It is no wonder that Reid is Speaker of the Senate.