When it comes to family members of Republican presidential candidates, looks like the MSM has decided they're fair game for attacks.  Yesterday we noted how ABC's Bianna Golodryga claimed that Paul Ryan's mother was campaigning in a "very calculated" manner.  

Today we offer Joan Walsh into evidence.  Appearing on the weekend edition of MSNBC's "Hardball," the Salon editor accused Ann Romney of throwing a "tantrum" over her husband's decision to release no more than two years of tax returns.  View the video after the jump.

In what was billed as a profile of Ann Romney set to air on Thursday's NBC Rock Center, a portion of the interview played on Thursday's Today featured news anchor Natalie Morales grilling the Republican candidate's spouse on taxes: "...she fiercely defended the Romneys' decision not to release tax returns from before 2010. A lot of people still are asking why not be transparent and release more than the 2010 and the estimates for 2011." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Romney responded forcefully: "Have you seen how we're attacked? Have you seen what's happened?" Morales continued to press the issue: "It's been in the press quite a bit. Now are you angry that it's been in the press? I mean, should you not be questioned about your finances?" Romney pushed back: "We have been very transparent to what's legally required of us. But, the more we release, the more we get attacked. The more we get questioned, the more we get pushed."

If there has ever been any suspicion about which way GQ magazine leans, a new article by Wells Tower puts that to rest. By publishing "Desperately Seeking Mitt," a tear-down piece about the presumptive Republican nominee, the magazine proves that it is solidly Team Obama. Tower, who was assigned to cover Romney on the campaign trail for five months, made his intentions clear: to "follow Governor Mitt "Tin Man" Romney to search for signs of genuine life" and "to spy out those remnants of the candidate's humanity not yet blown to smithereens in the psyops war between the campaign and the press."

Apparently, he was unimpressed with his welcome, and soon concluded that "trying to penetrate the veneer of the Romney brand is like trying to split a billiard ball with a butter knife." In fact, Tower's cynical view of Romney permeates the entire eight-page article. While there are literally dozens of jabs throughout the piece, there are a few glaring instances of bias that cannot be ignored. One particular example is a scathing criticism of Mormonism, saying that its founder Joseph Smith, "despite having some forty wives, still endeavored to f*** everything in sight." 

Good Morning America co-host Robin Roberts, who has conducted a number of fawning interviews with Barack and Michelle Obama, pushed Ann Romney in an exclusive interview on Thursday to release more tax documents. She needled, "Your husband has been adamant about only the two years that will be released. Why will he not follow the example of others on both sides of the aisle?"

After Mrs. Romney reiterated that her husband wouldn't release more than two years and that they had nothing to hide, Roberts hectored, "Why not show that then? Why not release the- because then it's a moot point and people move on." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

You would think after all the negative press MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell got for trashing Ann Romney's multiple sclerosis therapy of riding horses, media members would have wised up.

Apparently not, for on CNN's State of the Union Sunday, USA Today Washington bureau chief Susan Page referred to Mrs. Romney's remedy as a "very expensive horse riding dressage habit" (video follows with transcript and commentary):