Votes and Taxes: Eric, of Vikingpundit, among many others, is keeping the torch lit for Teresa Heinz to turn over her returns. As all-things-Kerry is Eric's cause celebre, this should not come as a surprise. To be fair, Eric quotes from the Washington Post, which is itself calling for the tax returns.

I'm on the fence on revealing tax returns. On the one hand, who cares how much money a candidate's wife makes or doesn't make? As the saying goes, she ain't being elected. Moreover, she's not the traditional candidate's wife (ED: You can say that again!). What I mean is that a) she's a second wife, who doesn't really have all that much time with Senator Kerry; b) she has a very sizable private source of income that is more than just your usual royalties from the children's book. On the other, whether she likes it or not, she's going to be public property if hubby gets the nod. She better get used to the transparency sooner rather than later.

I understand everyone just honestly wants to make sure that she's not being paid money by Al Qaeda, and that no one on the Right will start anew the "privileged, out-of-touch" chanting, but really, it's not about what she is supposed to be hiding (i.e. "I never really knew she was rich until I saw the 1040 EZ form. Now I'm totally against those elitist people!"), but it's a symbolic show of humility and openness. We Americans get suspicious when candidates don't open up their lives to us, even though most of us would be appalled give the same obligation (I know, I know, no one forced Kerry to run for President [ED: That's what you think.]).

My advice would be to resist, resist, resist. In the end, it's not a vote-loser. People are voting on Iraq, the economy, and Iraq. The fact the polls are showing Bush to still be leading is only bad news for Kerry. Tax returns aren't going to solve that problem.