Teflon John and the tax returns

So the evolution of John McCain as the "man of the people" as compared to that elitist Barack Obama has begun.

Today John McCain released his tax returns, but only for 2006 and 2007 -- and for nothing previously. And they only reflect his own income, not that of his wife Cindy, who heads up a privately-held beer distributorship and reportedly owns eight homes.

Funny how the media are relatively silent on this, particularly when Republicans were having the vapors in 2004 when they clamored for Teresa Heinz Kerry to release hers and howled about what she's hiding.

And of course you recall this hue and cry from March of this year.

So why were Teresa Heinz Kerry's finances relevant in 2004 but Cindy McCain's aren't in 2008?

All together now:

BECAUSE IT'S OK IF YOU'RE A REPUBLICAN.

And we'd better be prepared to deal with that fact.

UPDATE: Joe Sudbay dug up this article that the Associated Press put out earlier this month showing that McCain's finances are not as separate from those of his wife as he wants to pretend now:

The McCains' marriage has mixed business and politics from the beginning, according to an expansive review by The Associated Press of thousands of pages of campaign, personal finance, real estate and property records nationwide. The paperwork chronicles the McCains' ascent from Arizona newlyweds to political power couple on the national stage.

As heiress to her father's stake in Hensley & Co. of Phoenix, Cindy McCain is an executive whose worth may exceed $100 million. Her beer earnings have afforded the GOP presidential nominee a wealthy lifestyle with a private jet and vacation homes at his disposal, and her connections helped him launch his political career -- even if the millions remain in her name alone. Yet the arm's-length distance between McCain and his wife's assets also has helped shield him from conflict-of-interest problems.

Nearly 30 years before John McCain became the Republican presidential nominee, he worked in public relations at his wife's family company.

Within a few years of marrying Cindy Hensley, the daughter of a multimillionaire Anheuser-Busch distributor, John McCain won his first election. He was new to Arizona politics and fundraising in the 1982 House race, and his campaign quickly fell into debt. Personal money -- tens of thousands of dollars in loans to his campaign from McCain bank accounts -- helped him survive.

Anheuser-Busch's political action committee was among McCain's earliest donors. Cindy McCain's father, James Hensley, and other Hensley & Co. executives gave so much the Federal Election Commission ordered McCain to give some of it back. McCain's campaign used Hensley office equipment such as computers and copiers, and Cindy McCain personally paid some of the campaign's bills.

The campaign gradually reimbursed Hensley for use of its equipment and Cindy McCain for her expenses. The loans -- described initially by John McCain as coming from him and his wife -- caught the eye of the FEC, which repeatedly questioned him about them; spouses are held to the same donation limits as everyone else.

McCain told the FEC the loaned money came from his share of joint accounts. At the time, McCain reported drawing a $25,067 salary and $25,000 bonus working for Hensley in public relations and receiving a Navy pension of $11,038 a year; his 1982 financial disclosure report showed bank interest but didn't say how much the bank accounts held.

But hey, he's a maverick and spent five years in a Hanoi prison, so everything he does is by definition OK, right? And besides, he makes Tweety's leg tingle.