Sununu says he suspects the White House is behind Reid’s claims. Sununu: Obama behind Reid's claim

John Sununu joined the growing number of Republicans claiming that Sen. Harry Reid is lying about Mitt Romney’s tax returns, calling him a “bumbling Senate leader” and alleging that President Barack Obama is “behind this dishonesty and misrepresentation.”

“Look, Harry Reid is a bumbling Senate leader,” the former New Hampshire governor said Monday on Fox News. “He hasn’t been able to pass a budget, he hasn’t been able to do anything about entitlement reform, he’s done nothing worthwhile except the bidding of the Obama administration. They have pointed out that Harry is lying, and the public is beginning to understand that Harry is lying.”


( Also on POLITICO: Priebus stands by 'dirty liar' charge)

Reid made unproven allegations last week that a Bain Capital investor told him that Romney didn’t pay taxes for 10 years, which Romney disputes. Several Republicans have gone as far as calling Reid a liar.

Sununu said he suspects the White House is behind Reid’s claims because Obama launched similar attacks against Sarah Palin, Sen. John McCain and Hillary Clinton during the 2008 campaign.

“It’s not Harry Reid, it’s President Obama and the Obama campaign doing what they always do,” he said. “The Obama campaign and President Obama are the ones that are behind this dishonesty and misrepresentation because they are trying to hide the failure of this abysmal presidency that we have had in office the last four years.”

He added: “It is, in my opinion, eroding the only asset he ever had, and that was a general, likable feeling that the public had toward him.”

Sununu quipped that Reid “probably” came up with the claim while “talking to the mirror while he was shaving.”

“But the fact is is that he was encouraged to do stuff like this by [Obama strategist David] Axelrod, by the president and by the White House. This is the way they operate. It is Chicago-style gutter politics trying to hide the failure that they have had for the last four years,” the Romney surrogate said.

Asked whether he knew for a fact that the Obama administration was behind Reid’s attacks or was speculating, Sununu said: “No, that’s the way they operate all the time. You have Hillary Clinton pointing it out. You have what they did to John McCain. You have what they did to Sarah Palin. That is not conjecture; that’s fact.”