Is Jon Huntsman Sr. Harry Reid's Deep Throat?
Update, 2:37 p.m.: Jon Huntsman Sr. denies being the source of Reid's allegations, but still wants Romney to release his tax returns, according to an interview with The Washington Post.
RELATED: Non-Deep Throat Jon Huntsman Sr. Still Wants to See Romney's Tax Returns
The latest speculation on Nevada Sen. Harry Reid's source for his charge that Mitt Romney paid no taxes for a decade is that it was Jon Huntsman Sr., a suggestion fueled by circumstantial evidence and denied by the Huntsman family, but still worth a look because, well, it kind of makes sense.
RELATED: The Difference Between Harry Reid and a Birther
Left wing blogger and Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas, who floated the Huntsman connection on Thursday night, acknowledged in his blog post that his evidence was circumstantial, "but still pretty solid, wouldn't you say?" Kos pointed out that "Huntsman Sr. is business partners with Robert C. Gay, who also happened to be Bain's managing director between 1989 and 2004." Reid and Huntsman are both Mormons, from the same region of the country, and the Huntsman family has donated several thousand dollars to Reid's campaigns over the years, Kos noted. And he left it there, but then a commenter pointed out that Abby Huntsman, who is Jon Huntsman Jr.'s daughter, co-wrote a Huffington Post story last month citing "several current and former Bain executives" who said Romney never would have run for president in the first place if he thought he was going to have to open up his tax records. For what it's worth, the evidence was enough to convince Daily Intel political writer Jonathan Chait, who wrote on Friday, "now I suspect Reid is right." Our own Google search for Huntsman and Reid's names reminded us that Reid had expressed some support for Huntsman Jr. in the primaries back in 2011, when he said he'd support the former Utah governor and China ambassador over Romney.
RELATED: Jon Stewart on Harry Reid's Romney Rumormongering
Huntsman's family has denied Kos's story, with an unnamed family member telling Buzzfeed's McKay Coppins on Friday, "honestly, we have no idea who Reid's source is." But at least on the very surface the pieces appear to fit together, so if the Huntsman-Reid connection turns out to be a false one, at least it's a fun theory while it lasts.
