Harry Reid has No Compass

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid attacked Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney about his tax returns once again. This time during the opening day of the Democratic National Convention for refusing to release several years of tax returns, where he also contends no other presidential candidate in history has been as secretive.

“Never in modern American history has a presidential candidate tried so hard to hide himself from the people he hopes to serve,” Reid said. “When you look at the one tax return he has released, it’s obvious why there’s been only one.”

Reid added about Romney, “We learned that he pays a lower tax rate than middle-class families.”

For Reid, a fact is a bothersome thing — so he does his best to avoid them. However, the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler called him on his ill-stated quest.

“For all the rhetoric about high taxes in the United States,  most Americans pay a relatively small percentage of their income in taxes.  Romney had an effective rate of 13.9 percent in 2010 and 15.4 percent in 2011.  That gives him a higher rate than 80 percent of taxpayers if only taxes on a tax  return are counted and puts him just about in the middle of all taxpayers if  payroll taxes paid by employers are included,” writes Kessler.

Once again Reid shows the nation that he is completely without a moral compass. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reminded many long-time residents of Nevada about Reid’s history of making false accusations.

“In the Democrat’s first bid for the U.S. Senate, Reid threw out all sorts of unsubstantiated charges against Paul Laxalt, the former Republican governor of Nevada who went on to defeat Reid by 611 votes in a recount,” wrote Laura Myers.

It was during the height of the Watergate scandal in 1974, when Reid questioning the former Nevada Governor about his financial connection to Billionaire Howard Hughes.  Reid challenged Laxalt to show his own and his family’s finances and to explain how he paid $7.5 million for the Ormsby House in Carson City.

Reid, then Nevada’s Lt. Governor claimed he wanted to clear up the “Ormsby House mystery.”

In October he handed out financial statements and tax returns for himself and his three brothers. He then challenged Laxalt to do the same. Reid continued by stating Laxalt hadn’t paid income taxes for several years.

In the end Reid claimed his financial worth was $305,292. On the other hand, Laxalt was worth only $200,000, excluding his interest in the Ormsby House.

Laxalt also showed he had not profited as governor. His returns showed that in December 1961, he was worth about $167,000 and, when he left the governor’s office in 1970, he worth less-than $102,000.

Kind of sounds familiar, huh?