January 20, 2012 07:49 PM UTC

What Mitt Romney And Scott McInnis Have In Common

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• by: Colorado Pols

Politico–relax, it’s not plagiarism (that we know of):

Mitt Romney said at Thursday’s debate he’ll release his tax returns in April – but the booing that drew suggests Republican primary voters don’t appear willing to wait.

It’s not that they have problems with his record at Bain Capital – Romney has effectively neutralized many of those lines by calling them attacks on free enterprise out of step with the GOP.

But the combination of the tax return issue, reports that his former firm parked assets in Cayman tax shelters and his own rhetorical missteps is beginning to paint him as a plutocrat rather than “someone who’s lived in the real streets of America,” as he described himself at Thursday’s debate…

Over the last few days as the issue of GOP presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney’s tax returns (more to the point his apparent reluctance to release them) has bubbled up, we’ve had a sense of deja vu–as our friend Jason Salzman reported back in April of 2010:

Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis told hosts Keith Weinman and Gail Fallen, “So I’m not going to invite myself to my own beating. I’m going to give what I think the people want, not what The Denver Post wants.”

McInnis was on the conservative radio show after having apparently just read a Post editorial,  published that morning, calling on him and fellow Republican Dan Maes to “follow Hickenlooper’s lead and agree to make their returns public.”

The Post argued that releasing income tax returns “shows that a leader who seeks the public trust is committed to transparency at all levels,” adding that “[t]ax returns show sources of income, chronicle any charitable giving, and reveal potential conflicts of interest, use of tax shelters and other valuable information.”

We would say maybe Scott McInnis has some good advice for Romney now that he’s freed from supporting Rick Perry, but we recall it didn’t actually end very well for McInnis, either.

So, you know, maybe not.