Today the Obama campaign began a push to demand Senator Clinton release her full tax returns so voters could see where the finances she gave to her campaign came from. Clinton’s camp has said she will not release them until after the primary process is done and countered that the issue is irrelevent.

Interestingly enough though, during her first Senate bid in New York State Senator Clinton used the exact same tactic against her opponent Rick Lazio and included a stunt involving a campaign worker from the State Democratic Party dressed as Uncle Sam who was frequently dispatched to Lazio events to taunt him over the issue.

From the New York Times archives:

The campaign of his Democratic opponent, Hillary Rodham Clinton, criticized the delay, asking whether he was hiding something. The State Democratic Party even sent a young campaign worker dressed as Uncle Sam to Mr. Lazio’s campaign events, to shout at him to disclose the returns.

Mr. Lazio’s aides said the wait stemmed from their need to review the returns. ”We said we would release them by the end of the summer, and we did,” said Dan McLagan, a spokesman for the Lazio campaign. ”The only story here is Mrs. Clinton’s desperation in basing so much of her campaign in attacking Rick on this issue. It shows the lack of seriousness on her part, and I think calls her credibility into question.”

Another report from the New York Times

Almost since the day Mr. Lazio entered the Senate race in May, the Lazio campaign has pledged to make the information public. And with each passing week, his assistants say they need more time, explaining that they want to ensure that the returns are thoroughly researched so that when they are released, the campaign will not be blind-sided by anything in them. By the end of summer, the assistants promise. By Labor Day? The autumnal equinox on Sept. 22? They won’t say.

The Democrats have been sowing conspiracy theories of the what-is-Lazio-hiding variety, not to mention dispatching Uncle Sam to keep the issue in reporters’ faces. On Wednesday, Howard Wolfson, the chief spokesman for Mr. Lazio’s opponent, Hillary Rodham Clinton, even showed up at a Lazio event in Harlem to fan the flames.

From an August 29th 2000 Washington Post article:

“Congressman Lazio is clearly playing peek-a-boo with his taxes,” said Hillary Clinton’s spokesman, Howard Wolfson.

Today Wolfson says that Clinton is the one who needs more time and that the tax returns since leaving office will be available on or around April 15th. The issue without this little ironic twist isn’t as interesting, with it, well, let’s just say the Obama campaign would be wise to start digging up some pictures and old news articles.

Update: I found out Wolfson himself dressed as Uncle Sam for the stunt.

In recent months, the team has been trying to focus public scrutiny on Lazio. Wolfson himself, along with a Democratic State Committee member dressed as Uncle Sam, showed up at a Lazio event in Harlem in August, taunting Lazio with the first lady’s New York property tax returns and challenging him to release his returns. In any other campaign, it might have been the candidate who seized such a photo op; but with his boss invested in preserving her dignity, it occasionally falls to Wolfson to supply those moments of semi-slapstick.