Mitt Romney’s secrets

MITT ROMNEY’S contemptuous attitude toward the

importance of public disclosure is increasingly troubling. Whether it involves the details of his personal finances or the

identity of his big fundraisers, the presumptive Republican is setting a new, low bar for transparency — one that does not

augur well for how the Romney White House would conduct itself if he were elected.

Mitt Romney’s secrets

First is the matter of tax returns. Mr. Romney’s campaign, belatedly and

under pressure, released a single year’s worth of tax information in January along with a summary for the 2011 return. Now,

with a Friday afternoon release conveniently timed for minimum news coverage a week ago, it announced that the

candidate had filed for an extension. “Sometime in the next six months, and prior to the election, Gov. Romney will file and

release the 2011 return when there is sufficient information to provide an accurate return,” spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in

a statement.

The campaign insisted that Mr. Romney was delaying because some of the companies in which he

had invested had yet to report their earnings. This explanation would be a lot more palatable if Mr. Romney had demonstrated

any inclination to live up to the standards of most previous presidential candidates — including, most notably, his own

father, George Romney, who released a dozen years of returns when he ran for president in 1968.

Mitt Romney turned

over more than two decades of returns when he was vetted as a possible vice presidential running mate for 2008 Republican

presidential nominee John McCain. A few presidential candidates, including Mr. McCain, have been this stingy with their tax

records, but the information is particularly relevant in Mr. Romney’s case because of the size of his fortune and the low

share of income he paid in taxes for the year that was released.

Then there is the mystery of Mr. Romney’s bundlers. Candidates such as Mr. McCain, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, among

others, voluntarily did the right thing and revealed the identity of these major fundraisers. Mr. Romney, despite the

undeniable importance of these individuals, has declined to follow that practice.

Bundlers play a crucial role for

political candidates, collecting donations that can amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars to fuel campaigns. The

candidates know full well to whom they are indebted. Perhaps Mr. Romney can explain why the public isn’t entitled to the same

information.