But these are extraordinary times. So, the time has come. He renounced his party affiliation a few weeks before the GOP Convention — due to a deeply reasoned, and principled, stand against its nominee — Donald Trump.

Tonight in the Washington Post, he writes of the thrall in which — it would seem — Mr. Putin holds Mr. Trump.

I concur with Mr. Will here, fully:

“…We shouldn’t overstate Putin’s efforts, which will hardly determine the outcome of the election. Still, we should think of the Trump campaign as the moral equivalent of Henry Wallace’s communist-infiltrated campaign for president in 1948. . . . A foreign power that wishes ill upon the United States has attached itself to a major presidential campaign.”

It is unclear whether any political idea leavens the avarice of Trump and some of his accomplices regarding today’s tormented and dangerous Russia. Speculation about the nature and scale of Trump’s financial entanglements with Putin and his associates is justified by Trump’s refusal to release his personal and business tax information. Obviously he is hiding something, and probably more than merely embarrassing evidence that he has vastly exaggerated his net worth and charitableness.

In Wednesday’s news conference, Trump said, “I have nothing to do with Russia.” Yet Donald Trump Jr. says, “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets. We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia....”

A decade ago, had you told me I’d be quoting George Will on the dangerous nature of a GOP candidate for President — I’d have asked whether Mr. Will had been demented, at the time.

But I would never have foreseen the rise — inside the GOP — of someone who more valued approval from the Russian oligarchy, than from his own fellow US citizens.

And, as Mr. Will points out — it could be that he has a strong economic interest (forgiveness of Trump’s debts to Russia?) to  be so supple.

But he may put to rest all this — with a release of even his last seven years of IRS 1040 Forms.