ZOMG! Teresa Heinz Kerry Released the 'First Two Pages of Her 2003 Tax Return' — How Dare You Deflect Attention, Mitt Romney, How Dare You?

I guess it's working, a little bit, at least. Recall my report yesterday, "Mitt Romney Hits Back Against Obama's Shameless Dishonest Attacks." Romney mentioned that John Kerry's wife, Maria Teresa Thierstein Simões-Ferreira Heinz Kerry, one of the worlds richest women, never released her taxes in 2004. Well, here's the correction to that, at the Boston Globe, "John Kerry’s office blasts Mitt Romney over inaccurate claims about tax returns" (via Memeorandum):

In an interview on Fox News Channel Monday morning, Romney -- under pressure from not only the Obama campaign but also some in his own party to release additional tax returns -- suggested he is the victim of a double standard.

“John Kerry ran for president; you know, his wife, who has hundreds of millions of dollars -- she never released her tax returns,” Romney said. “Somehow this wasn’t an issue.”

In fact, Heinz Kerry’s reluctance to release tax returns, which she files separately from her husband, was a major story line during the 2004 presidential race. She eventually made public the first two pages of her 2003 return, which showed she earned $5.1 million that year, almost all of it from interest and dividends on investments. She paid $627,150 in federal taxes in 2003, only 12.3 percent of her total income.

Well, blow me down!

The first two pages! Neener, neener! Mitt Romney liar, liar pants on fire!

And checking back over at Memeorandum, the progs are all over this like it's the biggest scandal since Monica Lewinsky serviced Big Bill. And they're lying about it, at the aptly titled Crooks and Liars, for example:

While Romney is correct that Teresa Heinz Kerry declined to release any tax returns when her husband, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), ran for the White House in 2004, a candidate's wife is not usually held to the same standard as the candidate.

Oops! Not true, sorry. John McCain was under vicious pressure to release his wife's returns, and the Soros-backed Media Matters used the same lame Teresa Heinz Kerry comparison, "Several media outlets advanced comparison between Cindy McCain's and Teresa Heinz Kerry's release of tax info, ignoring key distinction." And Media Matters even deleted some of its smears, but the cached version of this one's still available, "Double Standard for Candidate Spouses."

Not such a double standard after all, it turns out. Ultimately, the McCain campaign released Cindy McCain's full 2006 tax returns, not just the first two pages: "Campaign releases 2006 tax filing for Cindy McCain."

Maybe some of the progs can set record straight? And kudos for Mitt Romney on turning back the left's false narratives. It's just a start though, so Team Romney better get cooking.

PHOTO CREDIT: Maria Teresa Thierstein Simões-Ferreira Heinz Kerry via Wikimedia Commons.