An unsubstantiated claim by the Senate's top Democrat that Mitt Romney paid no taxes for a decade continues to dog the presumptive GOP nominee as liberal groups and other Democrats line up behind the assertion.

The Romney campaign is struggling to move past the claim, first made last week by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who cited an unnamed source in asserting that Romney won't release his taxes because he paid no taxes for 10 years.

And now fellow Democrats are jumping into the fray.

Charles Dharapak / AP

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney pays for a sandwich at Stepto's BBQ Shack in Evansville, Ind.

"Harry Reid made a statement that is true. Somebody told him. It is a fact," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told the Huffington Post on Monday in support of Reid.

The Senate majority leader's initial comment last week (also to the Huffington Post) and his subsequent refusal to back off the assertion have prompted reprisals from angry Republicans.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Preibus called Reid a “dirty liar” on Fox News this morning.  And Romney himself challenged Reid to "put up or shut up" on Friday, when he additionally said he'd paid "a lot" of taxes each and every year.

But short of assailing Reid -- in especially personal terms – Romney and the GOP have found it difficult to move the campaign narrative back to jobs and the economy with headlines about his taxes dominating coverage. Moreover, Romney seems mostly unmoved by the public clamor for his taxes; he has offered no indication that he plans to release records beyond the 2010 records he's already made public, and the 2011 returns he's promised to release.

In the meanwhile, the progressive cavalry has rushed in to Reid’s defense.

"Romney's secretive behavior in hiding his tax returns raises questions about if he actually did pay any taxes or if he had enough corporate loopholes to avoid paying his fair share," said Nevada AFL-CIO executive secretary-treasurer Danny Thompson.  "Our members pay their fair share every day - Romney could learn what it really means to support your country from their leadership example. If Romney paid taxes, then let's see it."

"I don't know who Harry Reid's source was, but I do know that this is a question that has swirled around Mitt Romney for this entire campaign," Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said Sunday on ABC, only stoking the speculative cloud surrounding Romney. "I do know that he could clear it up just like that, lickety-split, by releasing his tax returns."

Romney is nearing his announcement of a running mate, an occasion the GOP candidate is expected to parlay into some sort of campaign swing introducing the VP pick to voters. His campaign is hoping this announcement and the eventual Republican National Convention during the last week of this month will help the campaign move past these questions about taxes.

But reporting this weekend has suggested that Reid, a longtime tactician who’s given to aggravating political adversaries with these types of assertions, takes great relish in his role as attack dog.

It’s one Reid might also cheerfully resume after the vice presidential rollout, as long as Romney’s tax returns remain mostly undisclosed.

The Romney campaign, the Republican National Committee, and the Romney victory fund have once again outraised their Obama-related counterparts.

For the month of July, Team Romney has announced raking in $101.3 million, which is down slightly from the $106.1 million it raised in June.

But that July total is more than the $75 million-plus the Obama entities -- the campaign, Democratic National Committee, and victory fund -- hauled in last month. In June, Team Obama raised some $70 million through those efforts.

We won't know the apples-to-apples fundraising comparisons for the campaigns until Aug. 20, when the July fundraising numbers are due to the Federal Election Commission.

Even though Team Romney has outraised Team Obama in recent months, the actual Obama campaign has continued to outpace the Romney campaign, while the RNC has significantly outraised the DNC.

Why are these distinctions important? Because while the campaigns do control the party and victory fund money, there are limitations in how it can be used. For example, coordinated party expenditures are limited to $21.7 million in this presidential contest.

Are we now reaching the saturation point in TV ads? It’s possible that $45-50 million could be spent on the presidential race this week alone -- in August (!!!)… Romney campaign looking to turn page on a rough last seven weeks… Here’s one way it’s trying to achieve that: by announcing that Team Romney (campaign, RNC, victory fund) raised more than $100 million in July… Yesterday’s tragic shooting in Wisconsin… The Paul Ryan VP boomlet… GOP convention unveils a partial list of its speakers… Washington Post lands a punch on Plouffe… And the New Republic scrutinizes Stu Stevens.

*** Reaching the saturation point: Last week, the campaigns, political parties, and outside interest groups spent almost $40 million in TV ads in the presidential contest, according to ad-spending data from SMG Delta. And this week, with the Americans for Prosperity $25 million buy for the next month (which breaks out to some $5 million per week), that number could very well jump up to $45 million or $50 million -- in August. And in just 8-12 battleground states. We often struggle to find the words to describe UNBELIEVABLE amounts of money being spent on this presidential race. But close to $50 million in a week is absolutely stunning. It’s also unchartered territory. Are there diminishing returns on this advertising? Do ads become less effective? How do you break through the clutter? We just don’t know. But here’s one thing we do know: At some point, no matter how much more water you put on a towel, it becomes harder to make it wetter. That’s why they call it saturation.

Christopher Devargas / Reuters

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney points to someone in the audience as he is greeted with cheers and applause at a campaign event held at Sierra Truck Body & Equipment, in North Las Vegas, Nevada, August 3, 2012.

*** Trying to turn the page: Make no mistake: For much of the past seven weeks, Mitt Romney and his campaign have found themselves on the defensive -- on the Obama administration’s immigration announcement, the outsourcing charges, Bain Capital, the tax returns, and the overseas trip. Even on Friday, Team Romney was unable to completely change the subject with the better-than-expected jobs report (163,000 jobs created in July, though the unemployment rate ticked up to 8.3%). But as we’ve pointed out before, the Romney campaign has two key moments this month that will allow it to turn the page: the VP pick and the GOP convention. Dan Balz put it well in yesterday’s Washington Post: “The best that can be said about how Mitt Romney fared in July is that he survived. That has only raised the stakes for what the presumptive Republican presidential nominee needs to do in August… Over the next four weeks, he will need to do what the campaign long has said he would do, which is to introduce himself to the voters in a much more positive and appealing way. He’s known now more for his wealth than anything else, and not in a way that’s helpful.”

*** Team Romney rakes in another $100 million in July: Here’s another way the Romney campaign is trying to turn the page: by releasing its fundraising numbers. Early this morning, it announced that Team Romney (so the campaign, the RNC, the victory fund) raised $101.3 million in July. It’s the second-straight month it has pulled in more than $100 million, though this is down slightly from the $106.1 million in June. By comparison, Team Obama raked in $70 million in June. But our normal caveat here: Do note that this $101.3 million isn't the amount raised by the Romney CAMPAIGN -- it's the total raised by all three entities (campaign, RNC, victory fund). Ditto the cash on hand. And as we continually find out when we see the actual numbers filed with the FEC, the Obama campaign outraises the Romney campaign in the apples-to-apples comparison.

*** Yesterday’s tragic shooting in Wisconsin: It’s hard to ignore the second mass shooting in just over two weeks. Yesterday in Wisconsin a gunman opened fire at a Sikh temple, killing six and wounding others. Both Obama and Romney issued statements. “At this difficult time, the people of Oak Creek [WI] must know that the American people have them in our thoughts and prayers, and our hearts go out to the families and friends of those who were killed and wounded,” Obama said. “This was a senseless act of violence and a tragedy that should never befall any house of worship. Our hearts are with the victims, their families, and the entire Oak Creek Sikh community,” Romney added.

*** The Paul Ryan boomlet: All of a sudden, there has been VP buzz surrounding House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI). Much of this is coming from conservatives who are still trying to get excited about Romney’s candidacy. (See the Weekly Standard’s Stephen Hayes and Bill Kristol.) And these are the same folks who have been pushing Marco Rubio, but who probably see the handwriting on the wall here.

*** GOP convention unveils a list of its speakers: Last night, the Tampa Bay Times reported that seven Republicans -- Rick Scott, John McCain, Condoleezza Rice, Nikki Haley, Mike Huckabee, John Kasich and Susana Martinez -- will speak at the GOP convention. However, it’s very possible that none of these speakers will address in the primetime part of the convention, and the Tampa Bay Times notes that the RNC has yet released the day or time for these speeches. But here’s what we do know: If you were thinking there was an outside chance that Romney could pick Condi Rice or Susana Martinez as his VP running mate, this news pretty much eliminates that possibility.

*** Landing a punch on Plouffe: Remember when we wrote late last week that Republicans were targeting high-profile members of the Obama campaign? Well, this news isn’t going to stop that. The Washington Post: “David Plouffe, a senior White House adviser who was President Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, accepted a $100,000 speaking fee in 2010 from an affiliate of a company doing business with Iran’s government. A subsidiary of MTN Group, a South Africa-based telecommunications company, paid Plouffe for two speeches he made in Nigeria in December 2010, about a month before he joined the White House staff.” But allies of Plouffe push back on this article, noting that folks like Colin Powell gave speeches to firms cited for financing ties to Iran before joining the Bush administration. What’s more, there doesn’t seem to be any kind of quid pro quo. Nevertheless, the article lands a punch on Plouffe.

*** And profiling Stu Stevens: But Plouffe isn’t the only high-ranking adviser getting scrutiny. The New Republic profiles top Romney strategist Stuart Stevens. Among the revelations, Stevens told friends in 2008 -- including his book editor -- that he planned to vote for Obama in 2008. (Stevens says he didn’t vote for Obama.) It also notes that Stevens has written the screenplay for an HBO movie about how the New York Times uncovered Bush’s domestic-spying initiatives. And the New Republic reports that Stevens -- when working for McCain in ’07 -- urged the Arizona senator to hit Romney hard during that cycle’s GOP presidential primary. The McCain campaign didn’t think that strategy was good advice.

*** On the trail: Obama raises money in Connecticut, while Romney is down… For the rest of the week, Obama stumps in Colorado on Wednesday and Thursday… And Romney hits Illinois and Iowa on Tuesday.

Countdown to GOP convention: 21 days
Countdown to Dem convention: 28 days
Countdown to 1^st presidential debate: 58 days
Countdown to VP debate: 66 days
Countdown to 2^nd presidential debate: 71 days
Countdown to 3^rd presidential debate: 77 days
Countdown to Election Day: 92 days

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‘Dirty Liar’ Harry… “The Mitt Romney camp raged Sunday over Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's incendiary — and unsubstantiated — accusation that the presumed Republican presidential nominee may not have paid taxes for the past decade,” USA Today writes. “Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus went so far as to call Reid a "dirty liar" in an interview on ABC's This Week….”

Politico’s Mahtesian: “[T]he actual term ‘liar’ crosses a line that’s seldom breached, signaling a widespread GOP belief that, even by the diminished standards of contemporary political debate, Reid has violated a code. … the GOP has indicated it plans to make it personal. Between the loaded language and Priebus’s pointed reference to Reid’s Ritz-Carlton abode – an issue that surfaced in the senator’s 2010 re-election campaign – Republicans just sent the clearest signal to Reid yet that he needs to either produce the evidence, stand down or prepare for an extended public discussion of his own finances.”

Yet part of Reid’s calculation has to be that he’s happy to take the slings and arrows for his party, considering the consequences for Democrats if President Obama is defeated and Republicans take over the Senate. Reid’s not up for reelection until 2016 and that he’s 71 years old.

“President Obama's campaign has sued the state of Ohio over new rules for early voting designed to benefit members of the military, saying the extra hours should be available to all voters,” USA Today writes. “That lawsuit prompted claims by Mitt Romney and aides that the Obama campaign is targeting military voters -- a false claim, Obama's team quickly responded.”

More: “Obama political adviser David Axelrod, appearing on Fox News Sunday, said Romney's claims are ‘false and misleading,’ and that the lawsuit is about ‘whether the rest of Ohio should have the same right’ to early voting as members of the military.”

“The debut of a public database charting political ad buys has revealed … not much,” USA Today writes. “Broadcast TV stations in the top 50 markets are now required to post information about their political ad sales on a Federal Communications Commission website. The online database, which went live Thursday, is intended to provide easier public access to stations' political files, which until now could only be viewed by going to the TV stations. But under the FCC rule, which was opposed by the National Association of Broadcasters, stations don't have to post information about ad sales prior to Thursday. So anyone looking for information about the hundreds of millions of dollars that candidates and outside expenditure groups have already spent on advertising this election season will find nothing.”

Still, this is a step in the right direction.

Obama’s campaign continues to focus on women with a new ad running in swing states on contraception. It includes this line: “This is not the 1950s. Contraception is so important to women.”

Meanwhile, Romney’s up with a new ad up about how Obama hasn’t gone to Israel, as well as one about how the economy’s not getting better.

“President Obama marked his 51st birthday Saturday with a quiet round of golf - but revealed plans to celebrate it next weekend with a big bucks fundraiser,” the New York Daily News writes. “Obama, playing golf for the 104th time since taking office, hit the links at Andrews Air Force base before departing for a night away at Camp David. But next Sunday he will be in Chicago, hosting dozens of donors - some contest winners - at the First Family’s longtime home in Hyde Park.”

“President Barack Obama will sign a measure Monday aimed at helping veterans before heading to Connecticut to campaign for his re-election,” AP writes.

“President Barack Obama, emboldened by the Supreme Court’s affirmation of his health care overhaul, is now embracing the law while campaigning for re-election, just as Republican rival Mitt Romney steps back from it,” the AP says. “Obama sees a second chance to sell voters on the issue despite deep skepticism about it from many people. Romney is avoiding answering hard questions about how he would tackle health care, and thus missing the chance to energize voters who oppose the law.”

Bloomberg: “With the economy growing at a 1.5 percent annual pace, the odds of a recession have risen to 60 percent….”

Can disdain be genuine? Obama apparently doesn’t really like the guy he’s running against.

“Another round of monetary stimulus from the Federal Reserve is not the way to grow the economy, Mitt Romney said in an interview that aired Sunday,” the Boston Globe writes. “Instead, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee said on CNN’s ‘State of the Union,’ ‘it is the time to create the incentives and the opportunities for entrepreneurs -- businesses big and small -- to hire more people, and that is going to happen. You are going to see that happen in this country but not under this president.’”

More from Romney: “I think the Fed’s first action in quantitative easing was effective, to a certain degree. But I believe that QE2, the second round of easing -- I don’t think it had the impact they were hoping for,” Romney said of a $600 billion stimulus between November 2010 and June 2011. … I am sure the Fed is watching and will try to encourage the economy,” Romney added. “But I don’t think a massive new QE3 is going to help this economy.”

“When Democrats announced that their 2012 platform would include a historic first — gay marriage written in as a plank — the reaction from mainstream Republicans was near silence,” Politico writes, adding that the “quiet from party leaders would have been unimaginable even four years ago, when public opinion hadn’t yet shifted so rapidly on a signature social issue. And it marks a dramatic change among some of the top Republican donors and opinion-makers, who are supporting same-sex marriage in state-based gay legislative and legal fights, even as the official GOP platform will remain centered on traditional marriage.”

“Mitt Romney skipped Italy on his swing through Europe. That was probably prudent,” Bloomberg writes. “That’s because Bain Capital, under Romney as chief executive officer, made about $1 billion in a leveraged buyout 12 years ago that remains controversial in Italy to this day. Bain was part of a group that bought a telephone-directory company from the Italian government and then sold it about two years later, at the peak of the technology bubble, for about 25 times what it paid.”

The Tampa Bay Times gets some of the names of speakers at the Republican convention, including some thought-to-be veep possibles. Does this cross them off? Among the names: Condoleezza Rice, Nikki Haley, Mike Huckabee, Susana Martinez. (Also announced: Rick Scott, John McCain, and John Kasich.)

AP: “Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin are both big names in the party believed to be among those Romney is weighing for the vice presidential slot or for the keynote address. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio also were noticeably absent from the slate of announced speakers and may be contenders for running mate. If passed over for the vice presidential pick, there is a very good chance they would earn speaking slots — if not the keynote. The speakers already announced suggest where Romney is looking to make progress as voters start to pay attention to the fall campaign. The all-important female vote clearly is a priority….”

The New York Times’ Shear looks at possible timing – why and why not.

AYOTTE: NPR looks at the benefits of picking her: “[I]f any senator could be said to possess a refreshing charm, it might be Ayotte, 44, a mother of two young children, who still lives in her hometown of Nashua and is married to a former combat pilot. Factor in her staunch right-of-center views and her landslide win in 2010 and you can see why Ayotte is now a draw at national conservative events.”

JINDAL: He likes Paul Ryan for veep.

RYAN: Byron York pushes back against the idea that Ryan would be a good pick for Romney: “In the last few days, there’s been new talk about Paul Ryan in the who’s-in-who’s-out game of speculation over Mitt Romney’s vice presidential pick.  The speculation is striking, because of the four candidates mentioned most often — Ryan, Rob Portman, Marco Rubio, and Tim Pawlenty — Ryan is the choice that would fundamentally change the direction of the Romney campaign.  How?  By instantly elevating the Ryan budget plan to the top of the Romney agenda.  Whether that change would be to Romney’s liking is very much an open question.”

He closes this way: “Of course, Democrats are going to bash Romney on spending cuts and Medicare reform regardless of what he does.  Since that is inevitable, say Ryan supporters, why not put the plan’s most articulate defender, Paul Ryan himself, on the ticket?  One reason would be that Mitt Romney has shown no inclination to make the Ryan plan the centerpiece of his campaign.  Perhaps that’s what he’s planning — perhaps he planned all along to run on jobs until mid-August, only to pivot to entitlement reform for the rest of the campaign.  But that’s not likely.”

NBC's Alex Moe contributed to this report.

The AP on this Congress: “Congress' performance matches its approval rating -- abysmal. … The Republican-controlled House and Democratic-led Senate have set record lows for production and record highs for dysfunction.”

The U.S. House and Senate, facing a backlog of unfinished business, plan to be in session together for 13 days before the Nov. 6 election. Even so, members plan to do what they’ve done all year on the biggest tax and spending decisions: Nothing,” Bloomberg writes.

“Republicans used their radio address Saturday to try and pressure President Obama into backing a full extension of the George W. Bush tax cuts,” USA Today writes. “Obama's proposal to end those tax cuts for people making more than $250,000 annually will hurt job creators, said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va.”

One Olympic gold medal winner says thanks, but no thanks to Marco Rubio’s suggestion that Olympians not pay taxes on medals. "For me, I make enough that I would say I should get taxed," said beach volleyball player Todd Rogers, who won the gold in 2008 with partner Phil Dalhausser. They lost Friday in the round of 16 this time around. "I'm not going to say I wouldn't take it, but I'm just looking at it from a realistic perspective. Tell that senator I appreciate it, though."

CINCINNATI, Ohio -- Vice presidential nominee or not, Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) will not be relying on an iPhone app to find out the fate of his political future.

Thought to be on Mitt Romney's VP shortlist, the Ohio senator told reporters on Saturday that he still has not downloaded the mobile phone application that promises to inform users of the pick "before the press and just about everyone else (except maybe Ann)." He first revealed on Thursday that he did not have the app, and that seems to have remained unchanged over the past 48 hours.

"I haven't actually gotten the app myself.  I have an iPad all full of apps, half of which I never get time to use anyway.  But we'll see," he said. "I assume I'll hear it other ways."

He told a local Cincinnati news station, "I imagine that's not how they probably would communicate it to me, but who knows."

His disinterest in the app is in contrast with the Romney campaign and at least one other potential VP shortlister.  Along with campaign staffers, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has been promoting the technology through twitter.

It would be hard to argue that Portman has not already earned a phone call or face-to-face meeting with the Romney campaign to find out the news.  He attended volunteer appreciation events at two Romney Victory offices on Saturday as part of the "Buckeye Blitz" happening throughout the state.  It's just the latest in a long line of events he's done in his home state on behalf of the presumptive nominee.

Asked what his responsibilities might be if chosen as Romney's No. 2, Portman said, "I would work very hard for Mitt Romney, but that's what I'm doing anyway."

That certainly will remain true at the beginning of this week when the Cincinnati native travels to the northeast part of the state to stump for the former governor. And while Congress is on its August recess he also plans to travel out of state to campaign for Romney as well.

Republicans have latched onto a new report about the defunct solar panel maker Solyndra, in an attempt to ding the Obama White House for embarking on a fool's errand with its green energy initiatives and engaging in cronyism when one of its biggest investments took a turn for the worse.

Solyndra has been on the tongues of conservatives -- including Mitt Romney, who staged a surprise press conference out of the company's former headquaters in May -- for months. And they feel that a new report released this week by Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee only strengthens their case against the incumbent administration.

Republicans' central narrative is this: the White House anxiously approved $535 million in loan guarantees for Solyndra -- a company with a principal investor who was a major fundraiser for President Barack Obama -- as part of its green energy program. And, the GOP contends, when Solyndra started to struggle, the Department of Energy restructured its loans despite misgivings from the Office of Management and Budget.

In a series of emails obtained and published by the committee and written during the initial approval process for the loans, one OMB staff member writes of the pressure to finish its review of the Solyndra loan.

"It's based on pressure from the VP's office," another OMB staffer wrote in response. "[The Department of Energy] would like to schedule the closing for tomorrow, and [Energy Secretary Steven] Chu will be in CA and [Vice President Biden] by video link for Friday announcement."

A Democratic report issued Thursday by the minority staff of the Energy and Commerce Committee acknowledged that the White House was certainly interested in an "expeditious decision" on the loans -- but mostly because Solyndra was the first major loan guarantee of the program.

But, Democrats contend, there is no evidence that this pressure influenced the ultimate decision to offer Solyndra a guarantee. Moreover, Democrats said in their dissenting report that White House officials told investigators that they weren't aware of any involvement in Solyndra by political fundraisers until it was first raised by Republicans.

The White House said Thursday, too, that the Republican-led inquiry was about little more than politics.

"I did see these reports, and what it points out is, yet again, proof positive that none of the accusations that the Republicans have made about this particular loan have turned out to be true -- that this was a merit-based decision," White House press secretary said in a gaggle Thursday aboard Air Force One. "What we knew then we still know, and this is a 18-month, costly investigation that only highlights the fact that Congress is not doing what it should do to help the American people."

The Republican report produced no hard evidence of malfeasance in the Obama administration's management of Solyndra, but the mere appearance of impropriety has fed into a narrative about transparency and waste that the GOP has sought to advance.

"When President Obama claimed government helped build businesses, he must have been thinking about his failed attempt to prop up Solyndra," Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said Friday in an email to reporters. "But after half a billion in wasted taxpayer dollars and nearly 2,000 unemployed workers, it’s clear the only people who lost on President Obama’s Solyndra gamble were American taxpayers."

In particular, Republicans have highlighted a portion of the emails contained within the same GOP report detailing the cost to taxpayers if the government restructured Solyndra's loans, or rather, let the company liquidate.

An energy official wrote in early January of 2011 that the expected loss under liquidation would be $141 million versus an expected loss of $385 million under a loan restructuring.

Democrats argue, though, that the Solyndra loan wasn't imprudent in the way Republicans would make it seem, and that the process to restructure the loan was the process of usual internal administration deliberation. Besides, Democrats contend, Solyndra might not have had to file for bankruptcy if it weren't for a sudden influx onto the market of cheaper Chinese alternatives.

But Republicans aren't likely to let go of Solyndra as an issue during this campaign. The June NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that Americans who were familiar with the company had a negative impression of it. Two percent of respondents in the June poll said they had a positive impression of Solyndra, versus 24 percent who said they had a negative opinion of the failed company. But 59 percent of respondents said in mid-June that they were unfamiliar with the company.

GOP officials also said that Solyndra tests particularly well in data they’ve collected, especially as individuals are exposed to more information about its difficulties and the government's support for the company.

The bet is that if Obama and Solyndra are tethered together in voters' minds, it will benefit Romney come election day.

"Let’s look at the results. Today, Staples employs roughly 90,000 people," the presumptive GOP presidential nominee said Friday in Nevada, referencing the office supplies company that Bain Capital helped support during his time in charge.

"And Solyndra, I think you know how many people it employs," Romney added.

Brendan Hoffman / Getty Images file

Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio has been mentioned as a possible vice preisdential pick for Mitt Romney.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, on Friday said he was not trying to distance himself from former President George W. Bush when he said he was "frustrated" during his time as budget director.

Portman, who served as Bush's director of management and budget for a little over a year, told The Hill newspaper, “I was frustrated when I was there about some spending issues — specifically, as you know, I wanted to offer a balanced budget over five years, and a lot of people didn’t." The comments pointed to an attempt by the Ohio senator, thought of as a top prospect to be chosen as Mitt Romney's running mate, to distance himself from his association with the younger Bush.

But speaking to reporters after touring the Ohio State Fair on Friday, Portman dismissed the notion.

"I've said that for years, ever since I was at OMB," said Portman. "It's a frustrating job, it's probably the toughest job in Washington. And by the way, my frustration continues. Im extremely frustrated. In the Senate, we're not doing what we ought to be doing."

One of the most frequently cited reasons why the Buckeye State senator may not be asked to join the national ticket is his connection to the Bush administration, which Democrats have continued to point to as a reason behind the sluggish economic recovery. When addressing new jobs numbers released Friday, President Barack Obama said, "We’re not going to get to where we need to be if we go back to the policies that helped to create this mess in the first place."

Asked if it was fair to draw a link between him and the Bush years, Portman would only say that is "proud" of his time as U.S. trade representative and budget director.

The possible GOP vice presidential nominee remains busy this weekend stumping for Romney throughout his home state. And at the state fair, the Ohioans he spoke to were just as interested as the media about his political future. Some hoped he could work to represent the country on a national level, others telling him that Ohio needs him to stay.

Portman maintains that no one from the Romney campaign has tipped him off as to when a VP announcement could come. "They keep that very close hold," he told reporters. When asked what role he might play in the Romney campaign, he said, "I don't know" and talked about how focused he is on the state of Ohio.

And while the freshman senator has been criticized for being relatively unknown, even in his own state, the VP buzz may be helping out a bit. A steady stream of people were interested in meeting Portman, others doing double takes as he walked by.

"They're probably wondering why I'm walking around with a donut hamburger," he said.

Portman sampled the donut hamburger before the deep fried buckeyes but after the pork loin sandwich.

LAS VEGAS -- Mitt Romney said Friday that he has paid taxes "every year," vigorously disputing an assertion by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee paid no income taxes for a decade.

“Harry Reid really has to put up or shut up,” Romney told reporters following a rally here.

“Let me also say, categorically, I have paid taxes every year. And a lot of taxes. So Harry is simply wrong and that is why I am so anxious for him to give us the names of the people who put this forward. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to hear the names are people from the White House or the Obama campaign or who knows where they are coming from,” Romney added.

Romney's heated words toward the Senate's top Democrat follows Reid's repeated assertion this week that an investor in Romney's former firm, Bain Capital, confided that Romney had paid no taxes for 10 years. Reid hasn't substantiated the claim, nor has he identified his source, but that hasn't stopped the claim from advancing.

Reid wouldn't back down on Friday, either, issuing a statement calling for the release of more of the presumptive GOP nominee’s tax returns.

Rick Wilking / REUTERS

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney makes a point at a campaign event in Golden, Colorado August 2, 2012.

"Romney's message to Nevadans is this: he won't release his taxes, but he wants to raise yours,” Reid’s statement said. "It's hard to say which is more insulting to Americans' intelligence, Mitt Romney's tax plan or his refusal to show the American people what's in his tax returns.”

But asked why Romney won’t just release more of his tax returns to silence the attacks, the former Massachusetts governor said he is just following suit.

“I’m following the precedent set by the last presidential candidate of our party, John McCain, putting out two years of income tax returns and putting out a financial disclosure statement, those as required by law, of course,” Romney said.

Speaking to reporters during his first stateside press conference since last month's jobs report, Romney said these attacks by the Senate majority leader – in addition to those by President Barack Obama – are not what the country should be focusing on right now.

“I had hoped it would be a debate on the direction of the country but what we are seeing instead is one attack after the other that are misleading, false attacks,” he said. “The president’s ads saying I am going to raise taxes on the middle class. That’s patently, simply false. The president has now raised taxes on the middle class as so determined by the Supreme Court.”

There are still too many Americans looking for work, President Barack Obama said Friday in reaction to July's jobs numbers, renewing his demand that Congress extend expiring tax cuts for most U.S. households.

Presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney, speaking at the same time in the swing state of Nevada, highlighted a report showing the economy added 163,000 jobs in July as an indictment of the president's economic policies.

"These numbers are not just statistics," Romney said. "These are real people, really suffering, having hard times."

The monthly report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics has assumed a heightened level of political significance for an election in which the economy and jobs is the top issue. While job creation in July matched private forecasters' estimates, the unemployment rate ticked upward to 8.3 percent.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

President Barack Obama talks about taxes, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012, in the Old Executive Office building of the White House complex.

Obama hailed the positive jobs figures in the report and argued his administration had presided over the creation of 4.5 million jobs since January of 2009.

"But let's acknowledge: we've still got too many folks out there who are looking for work," he said at the White House. "We've got more work to do on their behalf."

The president used the occasion to push again for lawmakers to renew the so-called "Bush tax cuts" for households with incomes under $250,000 per year, and individual income under $200,000. The Democratic-held Senate passed a bill to that effect last week, but House Republicans defeated it in a vote on Wednesday.

Without referencing Romney specifically, Obama pointed to a report issued by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, which argued a plan like the presumptive GOP nominee's would effectively raise taxes on the middle class since a number of deductions favored by middle class households could be eliminated. (The Romney campaign called this report a "joke.")

"The people standing behind me should not have to pay more so the wealthiest can pay less," Obama said in reference to a group standing behind him during his remarks. "That's not top-down economics, that's upside-down economics."

The dueling presidential candidates' rhetoric served as a case study, though, of the alternative interpretations of July's new employment figures.

Romney, in a statement earlier in the morning and in his Las Vegas-area remarks, called the jobs report "another hammer blow" for the middle class.

The former Bain Capital executive stressed his private sector experience as a chief qualifier, and went so far as to promise the creation of 12 million jobs during his first term should he be elected.

The setting in Nevada, which has been among the hardest-hit states in the recession and where the housing market has struggled to recover, was no accident for Romney. Nevada is set to be one of the handful of states that could determine the Electoral College winner in November.

Romney's speech also allowed him to relitigate Obama's "you didn't build that" gaffe from last month, in which the president seemed to suggest that business owners owed some of their success to the government.

"The president has said we’re taking him out of context, but then you go look at the rest of his speech -- it’s on YouTube -- the context is worse than the quote," Romney said, earning him some of the loudest applause from the crowd.

House Republicans will file a civil suit against Attorney General Eric Holder during the August recess, House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., has told NBC News.

House Republicans will file suit in an effort to compel Holder to release documents associated with the failed "Fast and Furious" gun-walking operation.

"We'll be filing a civil case during the break," Issa told NBC, "We will expect a day in court before a federal judge, which we have a 100 percent chance that the judge will hold that these documents should be delivered."

During negotiations between House Republicans and Holder in June, the White House invoked executive privilege on the documents Issa had requested for his investigation. Issa says that a federal judge should find that executive privilege does not apply to the documents he is requesting.

"The idea that you would withhold based on some executive privilege the documents related to a cover up of a crime is absurd, but that's the claim that the attorney general is hiding behind," Issa said.

The House voted on June 28th, 255-67, to hold Holder in contempt of Congress for not turning over documents related to the Fast and Furious operation. During that vote, the vast majority of Democrats walked off the floor of the House in protest of a measure they saw as a political witch hunt.

Soon after the House found Holder in contempt of Congress, the Justice Department penned a letter to House Republicans saying it would not be pursuing the case, stating that "the attorney general's response to the subpoena issued by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform does not constitute a crime." The DOJ cited the White House invoking executive privilege as a primary reason for not proceeding.

Larry Downing / REUTERS

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder during a meeting at the White House in Washington, July 26, 2012.

The DOJ's response has left Republicans with few options, according to Issa, who compared the current situation with congressional attempts to retrieve the Nixon tapes during their investigation into the Watergate scandal in the 1970s.

"We're seeking a remedy and the remedy is an order to compel," Issa said. "Nixon didn't respond to Congress, he responded to federal judges, ultimately the Supreme Court, ordering that he had no such privilege to cover up the tapes. And these are no different than the Nixon tapes, we're asking for documents related to a cover up of lying to Congress."

Better (but still not great) job news for Obama: 163,000 jobs added in July, while unemployment rate ticks up to 8.3%... An ode to Congress on its August recess: We salute you -- for not getting much done… Put up or shut up: More Harry Reid vs. Mitt Romney… And Romney camp/RNC try to distract the Obama campaign.

Evan Vucci / AP

President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign stop at Loudoun County High School on Thursday, Aug. 2, 2012 in Leesburg, Va.

*** Better (but still not great) job news for Obama: Well, the July jobs numbers are in, and they are better news for President Obama than they’ve been since the early spring. Here’s the AP’s write-up: “U.S. employers added 163,000 jobs in July, a hopeful sign after three months of sluggish hiring. The Labor Department says the unemployment rate rose to 8.3% from 8.2 % in June. July's hiring was the best since February. Still, the economy has added an average of 151,000 jobs a month this year, roughly the same as last year's pace.” As we said before, anything above 150,000 new jobs per month is good news for Obama. But expect Mitt Romney and the Republicans to focus on the slight tick up in the unemployment rate. The president will likely comment on the job numbers at his 11:45 am ET event at the White House, which is scheduled to press Congress to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for the middle class. Meanwhile, we’ll certainly get reaction from Romney, who campaigns in Las Vegas around the very same time.

*** An ode to Congress on its recess: For those who have departed on their August recess, we salute you -- for going down as one of the most unproductive, contentious, and unpopular Congresses in modern history. So in addition to last summer’s debt-ceiling debacle, the Super Committee’s failure, and the near-government shutdown during 2011, Congress has failed to come together to pass a comprehensive farm bill. And Senate Republicans yesterday filibustered a cybersecurity bill. So here’s your current Congress: Republicans are working to block or dismantle laws; Democrats are focusing on protecting what’s already law; and no one is getting stuff done. As we wrote earlier this week, one of the most profound changes on Capitol Hill is the job requirement. It’s no longer about bringing home deliverables to your state or congressional district (like roads, bridges, or new schools). Instead, it’s about scoring ideological points and waging partisan crusades.

*** Put up or shut up: It’s now pretty clear that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is accomplishing what he set out to do: get under Mitt Romney’s skin. After Reid doubled down on his baseless charge that Romney might not have paid taxes over a 10-year period, the Republican presidential candidate responded on Sean Hannity’s radio program, “It’s time for Harry to put up or shut up.” More Romney: "It's untrue, dishonest and inaccurate. It's wrong. So I'm looking forward to have Harry reveal his sources and we'll probably find out that it's the White House." But Romney’s put-up-or-shut-up reply gave Reid precisely the opening he was looking for. “When it comes to answering the legitimate questions the American people have about whether he avoided paying his fair share in taxes or why he opened a Swiss bank account, Romney has shut up,” Reid said in a statement last night. “But as a presidential candidate, it’s his obligation to put up, and release several years’ worth of tax returns just like nominees of both parties have done for decades. It’s clear Romney is hiding something, and the American people deserve to know what it is.”

*** Fatal Distraction: And while Reid is trying to get under Romney’s skin, it’s clear that the GOP is trying to do the same thing to Obama Campaign Manager Jim Messina. Earlier this week, the Romney camp and the RNC seized on reports that Messina -- when he was working at the White House -- sent work-related emails from a private account and held meetings at a coffee shop near the White House to avoid showing up in the White House’s visitor logs. This GOP hit on Messina, as well as yesterday’s hit on Obama Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter, has a simple goal: to distract the people running the Obama campaign. But the Romney/RNC attack on transparency falls short when they aren’t promising more transparency under a potential Romney administration. In fact, by not releasing the identity of its bundlers or the candidate’s tax returns, the Romney campaign so far has been less transparent than the most recent past presidential candidates.

Countdown to GOP convention: 24 days
Countdown to Dem convention: 31 days
Countdown to 1^st presidential debate: 61 days
Countdown to VP debate: 69 days
Countdown to 2^nd presidential debate: 74 days
Countdown to 3^rd presidential debate: 80 days
Countdown to Election Day: 95 days

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Obama leads in a new Pew poll, 51%-41%.

Iowa -- gone with the wind? “Monday's headline in the Des Moines Register seems destined to echo throughout Iowa until Election Day: ‘Lines now drawn on wind tax credit: Romney opposes it, Obama favors it,’” National Journal writes. “Rarely in presidential politics can such dichotomic declarations be made without the accompaniment of asterisks galore. But in this case, it was appropriate; the difference is truly cut and dried.”

“Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad isn't very happy that Mitt Romney opposes a one-year extension of a tax credit for wind energy,” USA Today writes. “The issue puts the presidential candidate on the other side of Branstad and Sen. Chuck Grassley, the top two Republicans in a swing state. The tax credit will cost the federal government $1.6 billion this year. In an interview today with Radio Iowa, Branstad blamed ‘confusion’ in Romney's campaign and says he'd like to speak to the candidate so he becomes ‘educated’ on the issue.”

“Later this morning, Obama takes up taxes, urging Congress to extend the George W. Bush tax cuts for middle class Americans, while ending them for wealthy filers; Republicans want to extend all the Bush-era tax cuts, including the high-end ones,” USA Today writes. “During his remarks today, Obama ‘will be joined by middle class families and workers who would be affected if Republicans in Congress continue to hold their tax cuts hostage by insisting on massive tax cuts for the very wealthiest individuals,’ says the White House schedule.”

The Obama campaign says it has released an online map “that allows individuals to see how many middle-class families in each state would see their taxes increase under the Romney Tax Hike and how much a typical middle-class family saved in taxes during President Obama’s first term.”

“Former president Bill Clinton will headline a New York City event for Priorities USA Action, the ‘super PAC’ founded by former aides to President Obama, in August, a person with knowledge of the plans said on Thursday,” The New York Times writes.

“With just weeks to spare, the leaders of the Democratic convention are chasing last-minute contributions to fund the political gala aimed at boosting President Obama's re-election bid,” USA Today writes. “Their efforts are hampered, in part, by Obama's decision to limit direct corporate contributions and a partial union boycott of this summer's event in Charlotte. Organizers of the Republican National Convention, meanwhile, say they also are collecting money but are well on their way toward hitting their goal of raising roughly $55 million as companies, such as Hewlett-Packard and Coca-Cola help underwrite the Aug. 27-30 Republican National Convention in Tampa where Mitt Romney will accept his party's nomination.

In a sharp departure from previous conventions, Democrats have banned checks from corporations or political action committees for the convention and have imposed a $100,000 cap on donations from individuals.”

And RNC Chairman Reince Priebus is going to hit the president on Solyndra at today’s Red State conference in Jacksonville, FL. Per excerpts of his remarks, Priebus will say: “You can sum up what Obama really thinks of the middle class in one word: Solyndra. Remember this: Instead of protecting hard working Americans’ tax dollars, he paid off his political cronies.” More Priebus: “Emails released this week show the White House knew it would cost more to bail out Solyndra than to let them fail.  But they still chose Solyndra over the middle class. Solyndra got special treatment, and we got the bill. The Obama administration was so generous that the head of Solyndra called them the ‘Bank of Washington’ in one email. Solyndra got an unlimited line of credit from the Bank of Barack.”

“Voters apparently just aren't that into Mitt Romney,” USA Today writes. “A new Pew Research Center poll shows more voters have a negative image of the Republican candidate, with 52% saying they have an unfavorable view of Romney compared with 37% who have a favorable view.”

As we’ve noted previously in First Read, others are writing that Romney’s biographical narrative is missing from this campaign.

“[I]t has become clear that [Romney’s culture comments] illustrate part of Romney’s core beliefs of the world, informing the underpinnings of his economic and global philosophies,” the Boston Globe writes. “In one of his most striking, but little noticed, statements, Romney used a point made by author and former Harvard professor David Landes to state outright that certain cultures are better than others.”

And the Globe goes further, digging up this anecdote from his book, “No Apology”: “The multiculturalism movement must be unmasked for the fraud that it is. There are superior cultures, and ours is one of them.”

And: “Jared Diamond, author of ‘Guns, Germs, and Steel,’ wrote in an opinion article Thursday in the New York Times under the headline ‘Romney Hasn’t Done His Homework’ that Romney had “misrepresented my views” and “oversimplified the issue.”

The Romney campaign is highlighting some front-page treatment from The Denver Post and Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.  The Post’s front-page headline: “Romney’s jobs plan could fuel job growth, local economists say.”

The Tribune-Review, the more conservative of the two Pittsburgh papers, has a front-page item on Solyndra: “Analyst’s Solyndra warning detailed.”

Lots of other papers pick up on the Solyndra story and congressional report, including this item from Buzzfeed highlighting emails between Obama staffers one with the response “Ugh” from a now-campaign official. The word “Ugh” has been the subject of several campaign emails now over the last couple of days.

Mitt Romney might not be releasing his bundlers, but USA Today and the Sunlight Foundation have figured them out as best they can, “by reviewing Federal Election Commission data, invitations to 85 Romney fundraising events obtained by the non-partisan Sunlight Foundation, campaign news releases and news accounts. President Obama releases the names of his bundlers publicly.”

“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is not backing down from his second-hand allegations that Mitt Romney did not pay taxes for 10 years, but he still won't name his sources for the unproven claim,” the New York Daily News writes, adding, “Despite taking some heat for the unsubstantiated accusations, Reid doubled down, and then tripled down, on the zero-tax talk on Wednesday and Thursday… Romney has refused to release more than two years of his tax returns, but has said he paid everything required by law. A top Romney adviser fired back at Reid after his Senate floor speech on Thursday, likening his the top Democrat's charges to Joseph McCarthy’s Communist witch hunts.”

Romney responded on Sean Hannity’s radio show: “It’s time for Harry to put up or shut up. Harry’s going to have to describe who it is he spoke with because that’s totally and completely wrong. It’s untrue, dishonest and inaccurate. It’s wrong. So I’m looking forward to have Harry reveal his sources and we’ll probably find out it’s the White House.”

Of course, Romney by not releasing his taxes from those years, can’t categorically disprove the claim – as tactless and below-the-belt as it might be for a Senate majority leader.

Here’s a headline from Roll Call: “Republicans Solicit Lobbyists for Input on Party Platform.”