I think Reid’s flipping out because he got played by Romney in a rope-a-dope/briar-patch sense. And knows it.
Romney gives 30% of his income to charity, paying 14% in taxes. That’s 44% of his income going out the door, and that IS the story here.
The release yesterday was deliberately timed to get the information into the news for the Friday evening news cycle in a way that would limit editorializing and prevent a quick response from the Obama Campaign - which will carry it into and through the weekend.
Reid’s initial attacks worked to Romney’s advantage - putting focus on the issue and allowing Romney to blow the accusations out of the water at a time/place of his own choosing.
If people go back through my postings here they’ll find that I’m not a big Romney fan, but I’ve wanted to give the guy a fair shake - especially from a campaign mechanics standpoint. What he and his campaign did yesterday was ... impressive. It’ll be more so if they can sustain and build the charitable-giving aspect of the narrative into next week, because it shows the fecklessness and emphasis on government handouts/dependency of the Democrats.