If you were waiting for a slam-dunk idiotic justification for allowing Mitt Romney to continue to conceal his tax returns, your wait is over. And the source of this numbskullery is just who you might have guessed.

John Nolte of Breitbart News posted an item today headlined, “Romney Would be Insane to Release More Tax Returns, Unless….” That’s a pretty solid assertion that, pending some surprise revelation, Romney should continue to keep his mouth shut. But wait until you hear the reasoning. Breitbrat Nolte starts out stating that two of his most strongly held beliefs are world peace and that all politicians should release at least the last five years of their tax returns. Then he sets about explaining why he is abandoning his principles.

“I hate war and nuclear weapons and I’m big on transparency in government and even bigger on fully vetting candidates, especially presidential candidates — regardless of party.

“Those are my values and my principles. And in a perfect world, I would currently be standing side-by-side with the media and the Obama campaign demanding Romney release at least five years of his tax returns.

“But I’m looking out my window right now and the rivers are not chocolate and the clouds are not cotton candy and the media is not objective and the President of the United States is not honest. In other words, it’s not perfect.”

So Breitbrat Nolte is declaring that the beliefs he asserts are core to his personal values are expendable if the world is not perfect. The next question, of course, is when has the world ever been perfect? By this standard, Nolte is saying that he never has to abide by any principles at all since they are only operative when the world is perfect. And with respect to the subject at hand, neither does Mitt Romney.

But Nolte doesn’t stop there. He complains that Romney should not be subject to a “unilateral disarmament,” which he contends would be the result of Romney being more forthcoming with his taxes. He says that for Romney to relent would “hand six feet of oppo-research over to Team Obama.” Except that the unilateral disarmament was already undertaken by President Obama who has released over a decade of tax returns, compared to Romney’s one year. And even that is in dispute as new information shows that he has failed to release pertinent parts of his 2010 return.

Furthermore, Nolte is making the curious argument that turning over tax data to the American people is crazy because it would allow an opponent to criticize it. Well, first of all, it would also allow voters to examine it and develop some confidence in the integrity of the candidate. But we wouldn’t want that, would we. Nolte seems to think that the purpose of releasing such information is purely tactical in a political context. He forgets that the real reason is to inform voters so that they can make better decisions.

Secondly, if Nolte is serious, then he is arguing that candidates should never reveal anything about themselves, because any information could be subject to criticism. By the way, Romney is making this same argument.

In another bit of misplaced loyalty, Nolte believes that releasing his tax returns now might make Romney look weak after insisting so fervently that he would not do so. Once again, Nolte is placing Romney’s electoral needs ahead of those of the people. What’s more, nothing makes Romney look weaker than the cowardice he is displaying by refusing to be honest with the voting public.

Finally, Nolte offers some peculiar advice to Romney. He suggests that Romney should agree to release some of his tax returns only after securing concessions from Obama for things that have nothing to do with taxes. For instance, one year of tax returns for documents about Fast and Furious. In other words, he is advocating holding Romney’s taxes hostage for political ransom.

This may be the stupidest part of all. Obama has no incentive whatsoever to comply with such demands. In fact, his incentive would be to laugh in Romney’s face. Here’s why: If Obama refuses to pay Romney’s ransom, then Romney declines to release any more tax data. But the only person that hurts is Romney as he takes more heat for his arrogant reticence to level with the American people. Romney is already getting hammered for not releasing his taxes, so why would Obama be inclined to put an end to that? The best thing Romney could do to trip up Obama would be to get his taxes out and curtail the controversy (unless what’s in the tax returns would cause more damage than that being done by withholding them – which seems likely at this point). Otherwise, Obama looks stronger for standing up to Romney’s ultimatum, and Romney looks shadier for continuing to stonewall.

The question now is – is Romney stupid enough to take advice from Breibrat Nolte?