No smoking gun. But plenty of smoke.

File this under headlines you probably won't see in 2012. If you haven't already taken a look at Nicholas Shaxson's Vanity Fair article on the murkiness surrounding Mitt Romney's offshore finances, you can read it here. The article raises plenty of questions, but in the end it can't answer them because Mitt Romney refuses to disclose any of his tax returns before 2010.

Mitt Romney's secrecy is a problem. As Shaxson writes:

Come August, Romney, with an estimated net worth as high as $250 million (he won't reveal the exact amount), will be one of the richest people ever to be nominated for president. Given his reticence to discuss his wealth, it's only natural to wonder how he got it, how he invests it, and if he pays all his taxes on it.

Romney's answer comes down to "take my word for it, there's nothing there." That shifts the burden of evidence to those who are asking the question, which would be reasonable if Mitt Romney were an ordinary person or this were a legal case, but he's not and this isn't. We're electing a president, and Romney must meet a higher standard. Shaxson is just the latest to raise important questions about Romney's finances, and Romney's refusal to adequately answer those questions is troubling.

He should follow his dad's lead and open the books'unless he's got something to hide, in which case he never should have run for president in the first place.