House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (P-CA) pushed back hard Thursday against the notion that congressional leaders should release their tax returns, saying the standard applies only to presidential candidates. "When I run for president of the United States, you can hold me to that standard," Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol.

Democrat leaders have urged Mitt Romney, who has committed to releasing two years of his tax returns, to release more of them. The senior Democrat on the tax-writing committee on Wednesday even said he'd propose legislation requiring presidential candidates to release 10 years of their returns.

A McClatchy report published Thursday found that only a tiny percentage of congressional lawmakers were willing to apply the same standard to themselves. Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV.) were among the Democrats who declined to release their returns.

Pelosi said she's met all of her financial disclosure obligations. "The disclosure that we have is full and complete," she said.

Some Republicans have joined the Democrat calls, arguing it is the best way for Romney to move beyond the tax debate.

Pelosi on Thursday chastised the media for focusing on the tax-return issue instead of jobs, while arguing it was Republicans who were calling the most loudly for Romney to release more of his tax returns.

"Let's not be silly," she said. "This person [Romney] is running for president of the United States. His party is calling on him to release his returns. It's up to him to take the consequences of not doing it, or doing it, but not to deflect [the issue] to say, 'Well, if he has to do it, why doesn't everybody else have to do it?' "Because everybody else isn't running for president of the United States, and that's the last thing I'm going to say about it."

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Editor's Note: Hypocrites...wasn't Ms. Pelosi supposed to be the steward of the most ethical and transparent Progressive congressional faction in US history???


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