In a February 27 article, the Associated Press reported that “Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton says she won't release her tax returns until she has the Democratic presidential nomination in hand, and not before tax filing time comes in mid-April,” but did not note that Sen. John McCain has yet to release his tax returns and has reportedly made no pledge to do so. Indeed, in a February 27 editorial, noting that Clinton has not released her income tax returns, The Washington Post wrote that McCain has also “so far refused to do so. Most troubling, Mr. McCain isn't even pledging to release his returns once he becomes the nominee.”

On the February 28 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, commentator Jack Cafferty similarly did not mention McCain's failure to release his filings, stating: “There's a lot of information that voters still don't have about Hillary Clinton, including the White House records from when she was first lady and her tax returns.” Moments later, Cafferty added: “As for the tax returns, Hillary Clinton also said at the debate that she would release them once she becomes the nominee or, quote, 'even earlier,' unquote, but her campaign seems to be backing away from that statement now, suggesting that Clinton won't release the financial information until tax time in April.” Cafferty later asked viewers to respond to the question: “How important is it for Hillary Clinton to release her tax returns and White House records now?”

Cafferty's question about Clinton's tax returns also appeared in a February 28 post on his CNN blog, with no mention of McCain.

From the February 28 edition of CNN's The Situation Room:

CAFFERTY: There's a lot of information that voters still don't have about Hillary Clinton, including the White House records from when she was first lady and her tax returns. When asked at this week's debate, a couple of days ago, about those White House records, Clinton said she would absolutely release the documents to show the public what she did and who she met with over the course of those eight years. She said she's, quote, “urged the process be as quick as possible,” unquote.

Well, the Bush administration now says it's actually the Clintons who are holding up the release of these records. They say the former President Bill Clinton's representative has not made any move yet to release over 11,000 pages of records. The Clinton campaign says it made two -- may take two more weeks for that representative to decide what to release and then to request the actual release of the documents from the White House. That's convenient. That would be after next Tuesday's primaries in both Texas and Ohio.

As for the tax returns, Hillary Clinton also said at the debate that she would release them once she becomes the nominee or, quote, “even earlier,” unquote, but her campaign seems to be backing away from that statement now, suggesting that Clinton won't release the financial information until tax time in April. When Clinton loaned her own campaign $5 million, Barack Obama suggested she should follow his lead, release her tax returns, so the public could see where the money came from.

Here's the question: How important is it for Hillary Clinton to release her tax returns and White House records now? Go to CNN.com/CaffertyFile, you can post a comment there on my blog.