Where does moral courage come from? Not this crew, folks.

Virtually every House Republican this week refused to demand the release of President Donald Trump's income tax returns -- including New Jersey's entire GOP delegation.



To which we say: Thanks for your public service; we won't be needing it much longer. Why not give all five House members a call and let them know what you think?

His father stood up to McCarthyism. This N.J. congressman shows no such courage | Editorial



The resolution they decided to kill Monday night was Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr.'s (D-NJ) latest effort to compel a House committee to use its power to obtain Trump's tax returns.



This committee, called Ways and Means, is one of the few that's specifically empowered to do so. It would have decided later whether to share the returns with the full House, which would in effect have made them public.

But Republicans refused to even demand an initial examination. The committee's chair, Kevin Brady (R-Texas), said he did not want Congress to "rummage around in the tax returns of the president."



Pascrell thought that was pretty rich: "I said, you have a hell of a nerve to talk about me rummaging through the president's private matters, when just three years ago, you were one of the ringleaders to go through 51 private tax returns when you were investigating Lerner."

Why is this pro-Trump N.J. congressman hiding from his constituents? | Editorial



He's talking about Lois Lerner, the IRS official who oversaw the targeting of conservative groups for extra tax scrutiny, which was investigated by a joint committee. Republicans supported combing through everyone's private tax returns, then.



Now they are concerned with "privacy." We heard much the same from Congressman Leonard Lance (R-NJ), at his recent town hall meeting. But privacy, in a President? Since when?



How is it that we have a right to know about Trump's "borderline obesity," but not his potential deals with Russia? Is this really the place to draw the line?



Every other president since Jimmy Carter has released his tax returns. Now there are even more reasonable grounds for the public to demand them from Trump: It's simple due diligence, to address questions raised by ethics officials and our own intelligence agencies about his ties and contacts.



Trump has said he won't release them because the public doesn't care, but the American people overwhelmingly want his tax returns released, polls show -- including a solid majority of Republicans. Yet our representatives are still choosing partisan loyalty over patriotism.



It's like Gov. Chris Christie's logic on a special prosecutor: We don't need one to look into Trump's ties to Russia, even though all U.S. intelligence agencies say there was contact between his team and the Kremlin, and cheating in the election on his behalf -- but we do for Clinton's emails. Right.



This fight for Trump's tax returns is a seminal moment, and our representatives are failing us miserably. They are even failing their own role models. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen's father's quote about McCarthyism, read aloud at a town hall meeting that our congressman refused to attend, is still echoing in our ears:



"By remaining silent, we lend credence to the view that we prefer to risk our freedom than to offend a questionable asset to our party," Rep. Peter Frelinghuysen said in 1954.



Yet the younger Frelinghuysen and his Republican colleagues are still quietly toeing the line on Trump. What would it take for them to show that kind of bravery?

If you would like to ask your Republican representative why he chose not to examine the President's tax returns and foreign business interests - or any other issue - his contact information is below. If one number is busy, try another. If you don't know who your congressman is, click here.

Rodney Frelinghuysen R-11thDist.) 973-984-0711, 202-225-5034.

Tom MacArthur (R-3rd Dist.) 856-267-5182, 732-569-6495, 202-225-4765.

Leonard Lance (R-7th Dist.) 908-788-6900, 908-518-7733, 202-225-5361.

Chris Smith (R-4th Dist.) 732-780-3035, 609-286-2571, 609-585-7878, 202-225-3765.

Frank LoBiondo (R-2nd Dist.) 800-471-4450, 609-625-5008, 202-225-6572.

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