Via AP:

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney owns investments worth between $7 million and $32 million in offshore-based holdings, which are often used legitimately by private equity firms to attract foreign investors. Such offshore accounts also can enable wealthy investors to defer paying U.S. taxes on some assets, according to tax experts.

An Associated Press examination of Romney’s financial records identified at least six funds set up in the Cayman Islands, a small Caribbean island chain that has long been used as a base for international investments because of low tax rates and financial secrecy. Romney has acknowledged that some of his investments are based in the Caymans, but he has not identified all of the specific accounts and the amounts based there. There is no indication Romney uses the accounts to dodge any U.S. tax obligations. . .

One, if everything in this AP story is true, Mitt still has done nothing illegal. But two, if everything in this AP story is true, the fact that Mitt didn’t move his money onshore after 2008 and avoid the loophole suggests a political tone-deafness that is staggering. At this point, Team Mitt is looking as flat-footed at Team Cain in handling the Bain/tax questions that they should have known would be asked. — Greg Pollowitz