Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romeny released his tax returns in January 2012, revealing that some money was invested overseas. Democratic pollster Celinda Lake called the offshore accounts “Benedict Arnold accounts” on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show on January 25, 2012.
 
“Benedict Arnold” is a term for an American traitor, named after the Revolutionary War general. Investing in the Cayman Island and in Swiss bank accounts may be legal in the United States, but can be perceived as a “Benedict Arnold account” by some other Americans.
 
 
Wikipedia: Benedict Arnold
Benedict Arnold V (January 14, 1741 [O.S. January 3, 1740] – June 14, 1801) was a general during the American Revolutionary War. He began the war in the Continental Army but later defected to the British Army. While a general on the American side, he obtained command of the fort at West Point, New York, and plotted to surrender it to the British forces. After the plot was exposed in September 1780, he was commissioned into the British Army as a brigadier general.
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Because of the way he changed sides, his name quickly became a byword in the United States for treason or betrayal. His conflicting legacy is recalled in the ambiguous nature of some of the memorials that have been placed in his honor.
   
MSNBC.com
‘The Rachel Maddow Show’ for Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Read the transcript to the Wednesday show
updated 1/26/2012 2:14:43 PM ET 2012-01-26T19:14:43
Guests: Celinda Lake, Steve Kornacki, Scott Pelath
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CELINDA LAKE, DEMOCRATIC POLLSTER: Nice to be here, thank you.
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LAKE: Oh, it`s fundamentally shaping it. And you mentioned that you couldn`t hope for a better juxtaposition than have to release your millionaire taxes at lower rates than secretaries pay, but also you have revealed the whole Bain Corporation problems. This is a man who made those millions, that he now doesn`t have to pay taxes on and has by the way an offshore accounts, Benedict Arnold accounts, he made it by firing people, and by costing people their pensions, by laying off people.
 
So you could not have a bet metaphor, a better example, and it`s why he can`t even consolidate the Republican primary.
 
MADDOW: When you call the offshore accounts, Benedict Arnold accounts, do you mean to suggest that Democrats will essentially attack that as a traitorous decision by Mr. Romney to put his money offshore?
 
LAKE: It`s certainly disloyal to America and it`s deliberately designed to avoid taxes.
 
Yahoo! News
The 2012 race heats up in the Sunshine State
By Amy Walter, David Chalian, Rick Klein & Sherisse Pham | Power Players – Wed, Jan 25, 2012
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COMMENTS
Bobby •  9 hrs ago
Anyone that STASHES Hundreds of MILLIONS of dollars in OFF SHORE (Benedict Arnold) accounts should not be running for PRESIDENT of the U.S.A !
 
Balloon Juice
16.Kane - January 26, 2012 | 1:36 pm
I like the new phrase of describing Romney’s Swiss bank and Cayman Islands accounts as Benedict Arnold accounts.