Brutal new ad slams Mit Romney for illegal tax shelters.

Haven't heard of the "Son of Boss" scandal?

Then here let CNN fill you in:  

Romney has had a close, long-standing, personal and business connection with Marriott International and its founders. He served as a member of the Marriott board of directors for many years. From 1993 to 1998, Romney was the head of the audit committee of the Marriott board. 

During that period, Marriott engaged in a series of complex and high-profile maneuvers, including "Son of Boss," a notoriously abusive prepackaged tax shelter that investment banks and accounting firms marketed to corporations such as Marriott. In this respect, Marriott was in the vanguard of a then-emerging corporate tax shelter bubble that substantially undermined the entire corporate tax system. 

Son of Boss and its related shelters represented perhaps the largest tax avoidance scheme in history, costing the U.S. many billions in lost corporate tax revenues. In response, the government initiated legal challenges that resulted in complete disallowance of the losses claimed by Marriott and other corporations. 

In addition, the Son of Boss transaction was listed by the Internal Revenue Service as an abusive transaction, requiring specific disclosure and subject to heavy penalties. Statutory penalties were also made more stringent to deter future tax shelter activity. Finally, the government brought successful criminal prosecutions against a number of individuals involved in Son of Boss and related transactions not associated with Marriott, including principals at major law and accounting firms. 

In his key role as chairman of the Marriott board's audit committee, Romney approved the firm's reporting of fictional tax losses exceeding $70 million generated by its Son of Boss transaction. His endorsement of this stratagem provides insight into Romney's professional ethics and attitude toward tax compliance obligations.

I think this leaves little doubt that Romney is a notorious tax cheat which undoubtedly goes a long way to explain why he simply REFUSES to release his tax returns. I think we can all agree that Mitt Romney is nothing more than a money grubbing crook, who did everything in his power to avoid paying his fair share of taxes to the nation that he now wants to be put in charge of.

And this guy was the BEST the Republicans had to offer this election cycle? So much for their much vaunted confidence that Obama was "easy to beat after four years of poor job growth."

If they really felt that way they would have found a much better candidate than Mitt "It's my turn dammit!" Romney.

(H/T to Politicususa.)