RUSH: This Harry Reid and income tax avoidance of Mitt Romney is a classic example. Let’s go back. Here’s Harry Reid yesterday morning on the Senate floor.

REID: If a person coming before this body wanted to be a cabinet officer, he couldn’t be if he did the same refusal Mitt Romney does about tax returns. So the word’s out that he hasn’t paid any taxes for ten years. Let him prove that he has paid taxes, because he hasn’t.

RUSH: The word isn’t out that he hasn’t paid any taxes. Harry Reid is the only guy saying so. And he says somebody called him that used to work at Bain. He won’t identify who it is. He’s making a fool of himself, as it turns out. I think this is actually gonna end up helping Romney because it’s allowing Romney to go on offense about this, about not revealing the returns because Harry Reid’s making it obvious what it’s all about. Harry Reid doesn’t even care. If it’s true that Romney weren’t paying taxes, Harry Reid doesn’t care about that.

That’s not what this is about. What this is about is Romney’s a rich guy, and he doesn’t have to live like you do. Romney’s a rich guy, and he gets deals. Romney’s a rich guy, and he lives in a way that you’ll never be allowed to and he won’t let you because he doesn’t like you. Mitt Romney’s one of these guys that got rich by taking everything from you. And that’s what he’s saying. He’s talking to his audience of brain-dead, mind fried, little wandering shreds of human debris. That’s who he’s talking to.

He can’t prove it, but now the allegation’s out there. He put it there. Now it’s up to Romney to disapprove it? What Harry Reid was hoping was the media would pick this up, start demanding that Romney — because what they really want is for Romney to release his tax returns, because they want to then pore through them and find anything they can that they are convinced they could make average people think was Romney skirting the edge of the law or doing something they couldn’t do.

Obama’s whole history, his whole electoral history, is to find dirt on opponents or make it up and run them out of the race before the election. That’s the Axelrod-Obama modus operandi. That’s what they’re trying to do. They’re dealing here with Mr. Clean. In fact, let’s go to The Forehead. This is good. Sound bite number five. This is The Forehead giving up the game last night on CNN with Anderson Cooper, who said to The Forehead, “Can you defend Harry Reid on this? Can you seriously defend Harry Reid telling us that Romney hasn’t paid taxes for ten years ’cause of some mystery man on the phone?”

BEGALA: You watch me. This guy has a long, incredible history of tax avoidance. Shell corporation in Bermuda. Cayman Islands, Switzerland bank accounts, a blocker corporation in Bermuda, whatever that is. Freshman philosophy. When you’re confronted with something, you have limited information, you choose the simplest, most obvious choice. What do you think it is, Anderson? Do you think he’s secretly, like, owns the Bunny Ranch Brothel? I don’t. He’s a man of extraordinary personal morality, impeccable personal moral character. So I don’t think he’s like secretly owning inner-city liquor stores that sell to children. No. I think — I’m just trying to show, it’s the most logical explanation.

RUSH: They admit Romney is a man of extraordinary personal morality. That makes him a threat, number one. Impeccable personal moral character, and yet they’re gonna accuse him of tax avoidance. (imitating interview) “Paul, are you sure?”

“You watch me. I can prove it. This guy’s got a long, incredible history of tax avoidance.”

“Really? How?”

“Well, he’s got Cayman accounts. He’s got a Switzerland account.”

“What, does that automatically mean tax avoidance?”

“You watch me, I’ll prove it. I’ll make people think it. I don’t have to prove it. All I gotta do is make ’em doubt it, and I can do it. My problem is this guy’s impeccably moral. This guy has an impeccable, extraordinary personal morality. So I can’t accuse him of running a brothel. I can’t accuse Romney of being a drunkard. I can’t accuse Romney of having girlfriends like Bill Clinton does. So all I can do is go after the fact that he hadn’t paid taxes.” They’re admitting it. The Forehead’s admitting it. “We got impeccable moral character, yet he didn’t pay his taxes. You watch me. I’ll create doubt on that.” And Cooper said, “He won’t name the source. Harry Reid won’t name the source. He doubled down on the floor of the Senate, said the same thing there.”

BEGALA: And if he worked for CNN, we’ve give him a promotion for that same conduct.

COOPER: What are you talking about? What are you talking about?

BEGALA: You go on the air all the time and say, “I have an unnamed source who can’t be revealed because it would compromise his –“

COOPER: A single source, you don’t actually go on the air with a single source. Rarely, under extreme circumstances. So that’s actually not true. The bottom line, you don’t have any problem with sitting members of Congress or the Senate making allegations without presenting any evidence whatsoever?

BEGALA: Romney has the evidence. We can’t see it. He’s choosing the most sensible explanation for a puzzling political thing. There’s something in there that he does not want us to see.

RUSH: No. There’s something he doesn’t want you to get your hands on because he knows how you’re gonna distort it. He knows you’re gonna use it. So The Forehead says, “Wait a minute, if Harry Reid worked for CNN, we’d give him an award, we’d give him a promotion.” Anderson Cooper doesn’t like that. “Well, wait a minute. We require more than one source here at CNN when we’re digging up dirt.” This really is revealing, don’t you think? This tells us everything we want to know about who these people are. They got no evidence.

“Romney has the evidence he didn’t pay taxes. We want to see it. He’s got impeccable moral character, and he’s got an extraordinary personal morality. And even with that, we know he didn’t pay his taxes. There’s nothing else we can hang on him, Anderson, so we gotta go get this.” So Harry Reid, yeah, he’s doing work that on CNN would get a promotion. I’m surprised Anderson Cooper was offended by that. I thought, yeah, I see your point.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: So Mitt Romney paid zero taxes for ten years, and Paul Begala says that’s the most reasonable explanation since he doesn’t own a brothel, since he’s perfectly moral, since he doesn’t have a drug bust path, whatever, it’s gotta be he hadn’t paid his taxes, right? That’s the most reasonable explanation. So here you have a man of impeccable morals who says all of this is untrue. You have a congenital liar, Harry Reid, who says it is true. And every Democrat believes Harry Reid. You know how frustrating this is? I mean, you don’t get to these people in Realville being literal. They’re making it up. And then they end up telling themselves it’s all true before it’s all over.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Folks, Harry Reid, as the guy running the Senate for the Democrats, Harry Reid hasn’t allowed the Senate to pass a budget in 1,191 days. What is he hiding? What does Harry Reid not want us to know about his plans? What does Harry Reid not want us to know about his intentions? He hasn’t allowed the Senate to pass a budget in nearly 1,200 days, folks. That’s not even legal, strictly.