Senate Leader Has Long History of Romney Bashing

WASHINGTON — Senator Harry Reid’s decision this week to hurl a taunting, unsubstantiated accusation at Mitt Romney is hardly out of character for the cantankerous Democratic leader of the Senate, who revels in provocative comments and once called Mr. Romney “kind of a joke.”

On a personal level, Mr. Reid has long been publicly contemptuous of Mr. Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee and a fellow Mormon. In 2008, he quipped that Mr. Romney would have been “a tremendous drag” on the Republican ticket. Last year, he said Mr. Romney “doesn’t stand for anything.” And in the last month, he has said Mr. Romney could not be confirmed as a dogcatcher or a cabinet secretary.

But Mr. Reid’s latest series of tart-tongued volleys  — in which he cited an unnamed source who claims Mr. Romney has not paid taxes for a decade — have generated more than the usual outrage from his Republican colleagues and from Mr. Romney himself, who on Friday spent a second day condemning the senator’s remarks.

“Harry Reid really has to put up or shut up,” Mr. Romney said as he campaigned in Mr. Reid’s home state, north of Las Vegas. “I have paid taxes every year, and a lot of taxes, a lot of taxes. So Harry is simply wrong, and that’s why I’m so anxious for him to give us the names of the people who have put this forward.”

The testy exchange between the two men is the latest manifestation of the broader Democratic strategy to highlight Mr. Romney’s wealth and offshore accounts as the party’s leaders seek to disqualify him in the eyes of middle-class voters. The Republican candidate has refused to release more than two years of his tax returns, prompting sarcastic television ads from President Obama and his allies.

The outcome of the Democratic strategy could hinge on its ability to keep the pressure on Mr. Romney. In a statement Friday, Mr. Reid, who has provided no evidence to back up his assertions, said that Mr. Romney’s message to Nevada voters was: “He won’t release his taxes, but he wants to raise yours.”

Mr. Romney accused Mr. Reid of trying to deflect attention from Friday’s jobs report, in which the unemployment rate increased to 8.3 percent. And he said he believed Mr. Reid was in cahoots with Mr. Obama’s White House.

“I wouldn’t be at all surprised to hear the names are people from the White House or the Obama campaign,” Mr. Romney said.

Mr. Reid’s attacks on Mr. Romney do not appear to be driven by any private history between the two men, former aides say. Mr. Reid has repeatedly said he does not know Mr. Romney, despite their common faith and their deep connections to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“I’ve never met the man. I’m sure he’s a nice person,” Mr. Reid told Charlie Rose in an interview.

Instead, Mr. Reid appears to be once again reprising a rhetorical technique he has mastered over 25 years in the Senate: repeatedly needling his Republican adversaries in ways that often push the boundaries of political propriety.

During the 2008 campaign, Mr. Reid repeatedly taunted Senator John McCain of Arizona, the Republican nominee, saying he should show leadership. He told a Las Vegas newspaper, “I can’t stand John McCain.”

In 2005, Mr. Reid said of  President George W. Bush: “This guy is a loser." He later apologized for that remark, but stood by another claim that Mr. Bush had been “a liar” while in office.

Mr. Reid called Senator Bill Frist, the Republican leader from 2003 to 2007, “amateurish,” and said in 2007 that Gen. Peter Pace, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was “incompetent.” Mr. Reid once said that Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, was “one of the biggest political hacks we have in Washington.”

Coming to Mr. Romney’s defense, Mr. McCain accused Mr. Reid on Thursday of sometimes displaying “rather erratic behavior” and said, “Harry might’ve gone over the line here.” And on Friday, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, said Mr. Reid had once again used the Senate “as a forum for his baseless accusations.”

“Frankly, it’s beneath the dignity of his office,” Mr. McConnell said.

But in the Democratic offensive against Mr. Romney on taxes, Mr. Reid is only the tip of the spear as Democrats in the House and Senate use  their offices to keep up the drumbeat about Mr. Romney’s refusal to release more than two years of his tax returns.

Top Democrats in the House on Thursday singled out Mr. Romney in a letter to Treasury and Labor Department officials on the prevalence of misusing tax-preferred retirement accounts, like individual retirement accounts, as tax shelters for the rich.

Representative Sander Levin of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, promised legislation in July mandating that presidential candidates release 10 years of tax returns, along with the location, value and economic purpose of all offshore bank accounts and investments.

That followed legislation introduced in late March by Senators Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, and Al Franken, Democrat of Minnesota, that would require members of Congress and candidates for federal office to include in their financial disclosure filings an accounting of any financial interest in a country considered a tax haven.

“It’s a boxer’s instinct,” Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for Mr. Reid, said on Friday afternoon. “You find your opponent’s weak spot, and until he finds a defense, you keep pounding it.”

Mr. Jentleson said that Mr. Reid has no intention of backing down from his comments. But the senator also has no intention of providing more information about his sources for the allegation.

“He’s not making this up,” Mr. Jentleson said. “This is what he believed to be true based on the conversation he had.”

At his stop in Las Vegas, Mr. Romney addressed Mr. Reid directly, saying, “So, Harry, who are your sources?” and trying to shrug off the accusations as nothing more than political spin in an election year.

“By the way, Harry, I understand what you are trying to do here,” Mr. Romney said, noting the increase in the unemployment rate. “You are trying to deflect the fact that jobs numbers are bad.”

Jonathan Weisman contributed reporting.