Nancy Pelosi Downplays Tax Return Demand

Facing questions about why she and other top Congressional officials won’t release their tax returns, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) down-played her previous demands for presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney to release his, calling the issue a distraction. Someone shouted, "You've gotten all the milage you could from that, its time to move on ... they don't call you the wicked witch of the West for nothing!"

THE WICKED WITCH OF THE WEST ... AND LOVING IT!

As recently as Wednesday, Pelosi had strongly urged Romney to provide further disclosure of his tax returns. But today, while maintaining Romney should release more documents because of “custom” and “tradition,” Pelosi said the issue was trivial compared with raising taxing on the middle class."

“We spent too far much time on that. We should be talking about how to hose the middle-income tax voters,” Pelosi said after answering two questions about the issue.

The Minority Leader faced questions about the issue after a News report showed only 17 of 535 Members released their tax returns when asked. (Yup, they've been caught again in the do as I say not as I do mantra.)

The former Massachusetts governor has released his 2010 tax returns and has promised to release the 2011 returns when they are available.

Republicans say Romney will release the same amount of information that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) did in 2008 when he ran for president. McCain a little slow, however, had filed decades of financial disclosure forms from his tenure in Congress leading up to his presidential bid.

Pelosi also suggested that the media should face disclosure requirements but exempt Obama because he is already the President.

“Some people think the same standard should be held to the ownership of the news media in the country who are writing these stories about all us Sainted officials. What do you think of that?” she asked.