Controversy swirled [1] over the weekend over the decision by the McCain for President campaign's refusal to release the tax returns of John McCain's wife, Cindy:

McCain's decision not to release his wife's returns baffled some Washington ethics experts. They noted that plenty of detail about the McCain children's trust accounts and even their credit card debt is included in the candidate's Senate financial disclosure forms.

"I think this argument about the privacy of the kids is really a red herring," said Melanie Sloan [2], executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington [3]. "The fact is, it is precedent that presidential candidates release their returns. When you don't, it looks like you've got something to hide."

McCain in 2007 donated about $105,000 to charities, most of it -- about $88,000 -- to the family foundation that he and his wife run. That amounted to nearly one-quarter of his reported income for last year. But because the McCains file separately, it is hard to know if that is a large part of the family income.

"The raw dollar amounts certainly are generous," said John D. Colombo [4], an expert on charitable-tax law at the University of Illinois [5] law school. "But, we don't know what Cindy McCain's income is, and we don't know if John has sources of income," such as tax-exempt bond interest, which would not be reported on a federal tax return.