Romney said on Hannity’s show, “It’s time for Harry to put up or shut up.” Essentially, stop making things up about the records I’m hiding.

But then Romney hits back with an equally egregious fabrication:

“It’s untrue, dishonest, and inaccurate. It’s wrong. So I’m looking forward to have Harry reveal his sources and we’ll probably find out it’s the White House.”

“You want to make up stuff about my tax records? Okay, I’ll make stuff up about your source.”

In one respect, Romney just did something we should have seen coming: he both whined about something the opposition did and then did the exact same thing himself. Usually, conservatives wait a while between the whining and the doing-the-same-or-worse, but Romney managed to accomplish both in just seconds. It’s a conscious strategy: make yourself out to be the victim, and the other guy can’t complain that you’re doing the same thing because he’ll look like a hypocrite. It’s kind of a political aikido move where you get to be a hypocrite but the other guy gets the blame.

It is, ironically, one of the more politically astute moves Romney has made in a while. Dishonest and hypocritical, but astute. In an honest accounting, however, Romney just ceded the high ground. Now they’re both on equal standing, and Romney has no right to complain.