Stumble of the Week

Lucky 13. That’s the minimum percent of his income that Mitt Romney paid in taxes the last 10 years. “Every year I’ve paid at least 13 percent,” he said. “And if you add in addition the amount that goes to charity,” added Mitt, “why the number gets well above 20 percent.” Suggesting that his tax-deductible tithe to the Mormon Church virtually doubles his effective tax rate is certainly creative bookkeeping. The Romneys announced their findings after rereading a decade of their returns. But they aren’t sharing them with the rest of us. Maintaining that they are “very transparent to what’s legally required of us,” Ann Romney said releasing more returns would just provide “ammunition” for their foes. Well, of course. It gets even better, wrote a friend who sent a link to Jerome Corsi after last Friday’s “transcripter” post. Corsi, a tea party activist, Harvard PhD, author of The Obama Nation and “swift boater” in the 2004 elections, who has called Fox News too liberal and Paul Ryan the “best possible choice.” has now produced evidence that, before Michelle, Barack Obama was married to his Pakistani roommate at Occidental College. I think there must be a contest to see who can lay the most abominations on Obama, and Dr. Corsi will be hard to beat: homosexuality, same-sex marriage, miscegenation, interfaith dating, loving a Moslem, sitting in another man’s lap, hypocrisy, lying. I know this is the fringe – at least I hope it is – but how often do we need to be reminded that the fringe is dangerous?