Conservatives are calling on Romney to end the controversy and release more taxes. | AP Photos Republicans tell Mitt to show taxes

Mitt Romney is facing a rising tidal wave of pressure to make public more tax returns — and that’s from his supporters.

The list of prominent Republicans and conservatives urging Romney to put out more than the two years of tax returns he has promised is continuing to grow each day. If he simply hands over, say, five to 10 years of returns, they argue, Romney can end the controversy and focus his campaign on the nation’s economic woes to defeat President Barack Obama.


Over the last few days, a number of prominent Republicans and conservatives - including Haley Barbour, George Will and Bill Kristol - have called on Romney to quickly release years worth of his returns, and more stepped forward with the same message Tuesday.

( Also on POLITICO: Do Americans care about tax returns?)

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) became the latest Republican to urge Romney to put an end to the tax returns flap and release more information. Paul told POLITICO on Tuesday he thinks it would help the presumptive GOP nominee “politically,” adding that “in the scheme of things politically, you know, it looks like releasing tax returns is what the people want.”

Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Tuesday joined in the debate and called for more transparency in the presidential race.

“I’m a big believer that no matter who you are, or what office you’re running for, you should be as transparent as you can be with your tax returns and other aspects of your life so that people have the appropriate ability to judge your background and what have you,” he told reporters in Austin, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Perry, who has released his tax returns dating back to 1992, added, “I think anyone running for office, if they get asked within reason to give people background about what they have been doing, including tax returns, should do that. That’s my deal on it.”

And Republican consultant John Feehery weighed in, saying on Tuesday that Romney should share the tax returns now, in the doldrums of summer, and put the storyline to rest. “Yeah, and he might as well,” Feehery told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Tuesday. “Couple years, get it over with and start talking about your solutions.”

But in spite of the mounting calls for more disclosure, Romney continues to just say no. On Tuesday, the Republican candidate told the National Review’s Robert Costa he stands firmly by his decision to release two years of tax returns — and that’s it.

“In the political environment that exists today, the opposition research of the Obama campaign is looking for anything they can use to distract from the failure of the president to reignite our economy,” Romney told “The Corner.” “And I’m simply not enthusiastic about giving them hundreds or thousands of more pages to pick through, distort, and lie about.”

That’s a big mistake, say a slew of Republican commentators, strategists and fellow politicians.

Democrats and the Obama campaign have long hammered Romney on his refusal to divulge more financial information. If Romney is unwilling to release more tax returns, they charge, it must be because he has something to hide — and it further plays into the narrative of Romney as an out of touch, wealthy and secretive businessman with nothing in common with the average voter.

“Tax havens, offshore accounts, carried interest: Mitt Romney has used every trick in the book. Romney admits that over the last two years, he’s paid less than 15 percent in taxes on $43 million in income. Makes you wonder if some years he paid any taxes at all,” the Obama campaign said in a new ad released Tuesday.

And the suggestion that Romney has something he’s trying to hide could be devastating for his campaign if it takes root, several Republicans say.

“If you have things to hide, then maybe you’re doing things wrong. I think you ought to be willing to release everything to the American people,” Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley said at the National Governors Association meeting this weekend.

On “Fox News Sunday,” Kristol blasted Romney’s decision not to release more of his tax returns as “crazy.”

“He should release the tax returns tomorrow. It’s crazy,” Kristol said. “You gotta release six, eight, 10 years of back tax returns. Take the hit for a day or two.”

Each day that Romney has to answer questions on why he won’t make public the tax returns plays into the Obama campaign’s attacks, former Mississippi governor Barbour told the National Review on Monday.

“This is what the Obama people have been praying for,” Barbour, who has previously said he would release his tax returns if he were in Romney’s place, told “The Corner.” “The news media has been playing right into their hand, chasing this around. You would think this is the only thing happening in the campaign, which is why Romney needs to put it behind him. It’s a distraction and he needs to get back to what matters.”

And for many who were embroiled in the vicious Republican primary season, this feels like an unnecessary do-over that could easily be put to bed. Ana Navarro, a Republican strategist who worked for Jon Huntsman, told POLITICO last week “it’s time to just pull off the band-aid.”

“He should just release the stupid taxes and eliminate the Obama campaign tactic of insinuating he’s got something to hide,” Navarro said. “The Obama people are going to keep the issue alive and it has the potential of mushrooming into a bigger issue.”

Republicans calling for Romney to release his tax returns agree with Navarro — he needs to do it now. On ABC’s “This Week” roundtable Sunday, Will and consultant Matthew Dowd both advised Romney to give into the pressure.

“If something’s going to come out, get it out in a hurry,” Will said. “I do not know why, given that Mitt Romney knew the day that [John] McCain lost in 2008 that he was going to run for president again that he didn’t get all of this out and tidy up some of his offshore accounts and all the rest.”

“The cost of not releasing the returns are clear,” he added. “Therefore, he must have calculated that there are higher costs in releasing them.”

But if Romney doesn’t act soon, he could go the way of the failed presidential campaigns of Bob Dole and John Kerry, John Weaver, a consultant and Sen. John McCain’s adviser in the 2000 and 2008 campaigns, told the Washington Post’s “The Fix” on Tuesday.

“The President has had the worst three months of any incumbent, due to the economy, since George H.W. Bush in 1992, and yet Romney has lost traction among key demographic groups in the vital swing states. He has got to get this behind him or he’s going to face summer definition a la [Bob] Dole and [John] Kerry,” Weaver said.

North Carolina Rep. Walter Jones chimed in on the debate last week, telling CNN, “I think if he does it in July it would be a lot better than in October” and that “whenever you are asking for the vote of the American people that you need to fully disclose what your holdings are, if you have any.” And Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) also shared with CNN that he thinks Romney should pony up the information to voters, saying on Thursday the candidate’s “personal finances, the way he does things, his record, are fair game.”

And Romney’s insistence he has nothing to hide won’t wash with voters, according to several Republican commentators.

“It would seem to me, at least, that releasing them now, when attention is less sharply focused on specifics and voters already understand that the Republican candidate is filthy rich, would allow the Romney campaign time to devise effective rebuttals,” Human Events’ David Harsanyi wrote on Friday. “Not to mention, presidential candidates should be transparent about their lives. If Romney does this, he would be able to demand (and never get) the same level of transparency from Obama on his college transcripts and other yet-to-be-released information.”

“But until then, Romney looks like he’s hiding from something ugly or corrupt,” he added.

As more Republicans and conservatives join the call for Romney to release his tax returns, Commentary’s Jonathan Tobin said he wonders who are the advisers telling the candidate to stand his ground.

“If Mitt Romney’s advisers aren’t telling him it’s time to release more tax returns, he needs new advisers,” he wrote on Monday. “Bill Kristol was the latest conservative to say what everybody knows is common sense when he called the refusal to release more returns ‘crazy’ on Fox News yesterday. He’s right, and the longer the Republican candidate ignores such advice the less it looks like he’s got a handle on what it takes to get elected president.”

Without offering the information to voters — and with the Obama campaign ratcheting up the attacks on what they are characterizing as a troubling lack of transparency — Romney is feeding into the idea there is something he needs to hide from Americans, several pundits say.

“There’s obviously something there, because if there was nothing there, he would say, ‘Have at it,’” said Dowd, a political consultant and former Bush-Cheney ’04 strategist, on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “So there’s obviously something there that compromises what he said in the past about something.”

Conservative journalist David Frum tweeted over the weekend that “releasing returns under pressure: more weakness, more pain,” but added his advice to Romney to “do promptly and cheerfully what you will eventually have to do anyway.”

And on “Morning Joe” recently, former Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele warned Romney’s insistence he won’t release the records is fueling the story that Romney is concealing something. “If there’s nothing there, there’s no ‘there’ there, don’t create a ‘there,’” he said. “Put out as much information as you can. Even if you don’t release 12 years worth of tax returns, at least three, four, five. ”

But not all Republicans say Romney should heed the call to divulge his records. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren on Friday that Romney doesn’t need to share more of his returns. “No. That is up to Mitt Romney what he wants to do. He has complied with the law. If he wants to do more that’s fine with me. I would say the tax returns that the people of Virginia are interested in, it’s their own tax returns,” McDonnell said.

Meanwhile, Sen. Jon McCain (R-Ariz.) told reporters on Capitol Hill Tuesday he supports Romney’s decision. When asked whether Romney should release more returns, McCain replied, “Of course not.””

“Should Kerry have released more? Should I have released more? Should George Bush have released more? You can make the same argument with every other candidate,” said McCain, who was provided with over two decades of Romney’s returns when the former Massachusetts governor was being vetted for vice president in 2004. “So if your opponent makes a big deal out of some issue then you’re supposed to do something that no one else has done? If you’re married to a very wealthy billionaire, should you be revealing her tax returns? I don’t recall that happening with the Kerry campaign.”

And former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty noted Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” that Romney doesn’t need to release any more than two years of tax returns as “that’s basically been the standard for Republican nominees for president.”

“There’s no allegation or insinuation of wrongdoing, or any time that he’s been in trouble or accused of wrongdoing,” Pawlenty said. “Why would Mitt Romney be held to a different standard than almost every other Republican nominee?”

Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.