Texas: How to lose an election

Rick Perry reaffirmed Tuesday that he won't debate rival Bill White unless the Democratic nominee for governor publicly releases income taxes from his years as deputy U.S. energy secretary.

"I'm pretty much set on doing what I said I would do," Perry said in a Dallas visit. "He needs to come clean with the people of this state. There's obviously something in those tax returns, or he would have released them by now."

. . . Perry's campaign says White, the former Houston mayor, should release tax returns from his time in public service. Perry has focused on the years 1993, 1994 and 1995, when White worked in the Clinton administration. White has declined to do so, and his campaign hasn't said why.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/091510dntexperrywhite.2b28c7b.html

White admits he paid no taxes for a least one year while a (paid) federal employee serving as deputy U.S. energy secretary. White refuses to release his tax return for that year, and he won't say why. That's how a challenger with a reasonable shot at winning blows an election.

Democrats need to adopt a new "John Edwards rule", i.e., if you know you have a fatal skeleton in your closet, don't run for high office!