When Mormons Clash

YOU KNOW HOW SENATE MAJORITY LEADER Harry Reid drives us CRAZY with that soft-spoken, optically wimpy style of his, seemingly (and quite often, REALLY) allowing the Repugnant Party to get the best of him? Well, this time Harry's retiring shy Twilight Zone bank clerk persona may serve to our great advantage. Who could possibly disbelieve the earnest, self-effacing MORMON (and we ALL KNOW these dudes are sticklers about truthtelling) when he says a 'little birdie' Bain investor told him Mitt Romney didn't pay any income taxes for 10 years.

OH MY. Said Reid, sticking the knife in: "His poor father must be so embarrassed about his son." (Ha-ha-ha ... I especially appreciate Harry's sincere "poor father" reference to George Romney.) Then for the twist:

"Harry, he didn't pay any taxes for 10 years," Reid recounted the person as saying.

"He didn't pay taxes for 10 years! Now, do I know that that's true? Well, I'm not certain," said Reid. "But obviously he can't release those tax returns. How would it look?

"You guys have said his wealth is $250 million," Reid went on. "Not a chance in the world. It's a lot more than that. I mean, you do pretty well if you don't pay taxes for 10 years when you're making millions and millions of dollars."

Ladies & Gents, what we have here is a sterling example of HARDBALL POLITICS of the highest caliber. For anyone who is inclined to sell Harry Reid short, think again. This dude is a heavyweight politico and Team Obama must be tickled pink to have Harry, the former boxer, in its corner.

Meanwhile, the secretive Romney camp played wildly hysterical ineffective defense, trotting out the "Etch-A-Sketch" senior advisor to lay a McCarthy era line on mild-mannered Harry that most history-challenged FOX viewers never heard of: "Have you no decency, SIR"?! WTF kinda prissy comeback line is that?! Of course Harry's a decent dude; why, he said: "I am not basing this on some figment of my imagination. I have had a number of people tell me that." CHECK. MATE.