And every one of these maneuvers was used against his own GOP opponents, and roundly criticized by them.

I really will not be surprised if he is Bushwacked in Tampa.

Robert Bently, the Republican Governor of Alabama: “If you have things to hide, then maybe you’re doing things wrong,” Bentley said. “I think you ought to be willing to release everything to the American people.“

Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour: Asked, “should he release the tax returns,” Barbour quipped, “I would…”

Ana Navarro, a prominent Republican strategist: “I wish he’d hurry up and release more tax returns so this distraction would go away.”

MATT DOWD: “There is obviously something because if there was nothing there he would say have it…But I think the bigger thing is, it’s arrogance. Many of these politicians think I can do this, I can get away with this.”

GEORGE WILL: “Mitt Romney has said he has released all that’s necessary for people to understand “something” about my finances. Now “something” is a pregnant word… The costs of not releasing the returns are clear, therefore he must have calculated there are higher costs to releasing them.”

John Weaver, a veteran Republican strategist: “There is no whining in politics. Stop demanding an apology, release your tax returns.”

This guy is flopping around so badly over hiding his returns it’s truly becoming entertainment to watch it unfold.

The GOP elite are getting very nervous about this guy.

The bulk of the Tea Party GOP can’t stand this guy. Look at the tepid endorsements he’s been getting from Republican celebrities and the conservative press. Right now, leading GOP personalities are joining the chorus demanding that he open up his tax records. More than anyone else, they know how politically destructive they could be, even if there is no evidence of illegality. Most of the slams being thrown at him (remember “vulture capitalism”?) were not originated by the Obama campaign, many came from Romney’s own primary opponents. And he didn’t make any friends on the far Right when he crushed their candidates with slick PR carpet bombing funded by an unlimited warchest from the RINO wing of the Daddy Warbucks, Country Club GOP elite.. And of course, he continues to flip-flop and etch-a-sketch (again, TP rhetoric, not Obama’s) in an era of YouTube and video tape.

This may give the Righties just what they need to mount an anti-Romney floor fight at the convention. A challenge to his candidacy may emerge, perhaps led by Ron Paul and his minions. They are clearly organizing to do something mischievous in Tampa next month.

Stay nude for the tunes.

But you’re probably right, I doubt the guy is a crook.

But I do believe the Mittster has taken every single opportunity he has, every loophole and every legal trick possible, to pay as little as he possibly can. I do not put him down for that, I do the exact same thing myself.

What Willard is afraid will come out, in graphic detail, is what a person with unlimited legal and accounting resources and enormous political influence can do to legitimately avoid paying taxes, and how the tax law has been rigged to favor people like him at the expense of people like us. This is not the sort of information that those who like to pass themselves off as “carrying the weight of the rest of society on their backs” want to be made public knowledge, particularly when they are running for public office on a platform of maintaining that privilege, and even expanding it.

It will also show exactly where and how he earned his money, (again, no doubt perfectly legit and legal). What Mr Romney is afraid of is not that he will be caught doing something wrong, but what people of his class, power and wealth are free to do whenever they please.