Not to defend his current behavior, but if I was RG I would have been royally ticked off for supporting labor for decades, only to see them blow him off in the primaries of 2004.
On Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 11:22 AM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> <http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0410/36118.html>
>
> Dems haunted by corporate ties
> By: Jonathan Allen and Eamon Javers
> April 21, 2010 04:29 AM EDT
>
> President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats are promising a climactic
> clash with Wall Street, but there’s a complication in their battle plan: The
> Democratic Party is closer to corporate America — and to Wall Street in
> particular — than many Democrats would care to admit.
>
> Former White House counsel Greg Craig has just signed on as an institutional
> Sherpa for Goldman Sachs, the iconic financial firm facing fraud charges
> from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
>
> Former House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt lobbies for Goldman Sachs, Visa
> and the coal industry. Former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle — Obama’s
> first choice to head Health and Human Services — is an adviser for a
> lobbying firm that represents Charles Schwab, Comcast, Lockheed Martin,
> Verizon and a host of other corporate interests.
>
> Attorney General Eric Holder once lobbied for Global Crossing — sometimes
> described as the Democratic Enron — and White House chief of staff Rahm
> Emanuel made eight figures in a little more than two years as the
> Chicago-based managing director at Wasserstein Perella & Co. between jobs as
> a senior aide in President Bill Clinton’s White House and as the congressman
> representing Illinois’s 5th District.
>
> And the Democrats rode to their majorities in the House and the Senate on a
> wave of cash Emanuel and New York Sen. Chuck Schumer helped them raise from
> Wall Street. Earlier this month, a hedge fund manager at the center of the
> Goldman Sachs fraud case held a fundraiser for Schumer in New York.
>
> “It’s pathetic,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, a liberal Vermont independent who
> caucuses with the Democrats, said of news that Goldman Sachs has hired
> Craig. “But it’s what goes on around here.”
>
> The Republican Party is still emphatically aligned with business, but in
> most cases unapologetically so. For Democrats, the dance is trickier: How do
> you reap the financial rewards of corporate America without offending your
> core political beliefs — or your party’s committed base?
>
> Democrats say their willingness to tackle Wall Street with a tough
> regulatory reform bill is the best evidence that they aren’t compromised by
> their corporate connections. But the regulatory reform push is also evidence
> that they know just how hard the political winds have shifted against a
> pro-business wing of the party that gained influence when Democrats were out
> of power.
>
> The sensitivity is so great that, when a little-known aide to House
> Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank jumped ship for K Street
> earlier this month, Frank took the unusual step of vilifying him in public.
>
> “I wanted to make clear I share the unhappiness of people at this, and my
> intention [is] to prohibit any contact between him and members of the staff
> for as long as I have any control over the matter,” Frank said in a press
> release. “I am therefore instructing the staff of the Financial Services
> Committee to have no contact whatsoever with [the former aide] on any
> matters involving financial regulation.”
>
> Sensing partisan advantage, Obama — a onetime Wall Street favorite who
> raised nearly $1 million from Goldman Sachs employees for his 2008 campaign
> — has been blasting away at Republicans, most notably Senate Minority Leader
> Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who opposes the current Senate version of an
> overhaul of financial services regulation.
>
> “Now, the Senate Republican leader, he paid a visit to Wall Street a week or
> two ago. He took along the chairman of their campaign committee. He met with
> some of the movers and shakers up there,” Obama said at a Monday night
> fundraiser for Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). “I don’t know exactly what was
> discussed. All I can tell you is when he came back, he promptly announced he
> would oppose the financial regulatory reform.”
>
> National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn said the
> president had “demeaned himself and his office” by issuing “political
> attacks” against Cornyn and McConnell for “doing what Rahm Emanuel did.”
>
> Cornyn was referring to a report in The Washington Post noting that, on the
> same night Obama was blasting McConnell for visiting Wall Street, Emanuel
> attended a private cocktail reception with Democratic donors there.
>
> Emanuel, in the unusual role of good cop, appears to be working to assuage
> the fears of investors with less strident language than that used by his
> boss.
>
> “This is important for America’s leadership in the world. We lead in the
> financial sector. It’s one of the parts in the economy we lead. But if
> people don’t trust our market, we can’t maintain that leadership. That’s why
> this regulatory reform is not against Wall Street; it’s fundamentally in the
> interest of the economy,” he told television interviewer Charlie Rose. “Wall
> Street, though, has advanced beyond the regulatory supervision, and we need
> to catch up in a way that ensures that we don’t have the crisis we had in
> the past and we’re prepared for future ones.”
>
> Schumer’s taking heat back home for not protecting the lifeblood of his
> state’s economy, but standing up for Wall Street could cost him dearly in a
> future bid to be the Senate majority leader.
>
> Some Democrats acknowledge that the legislation — and the harsh anti-Wall
> Street rhetoric — could cost them campaign contributions from the financial
> services sector in what is already shaping up to be a tough election year.
> But that’s a price they say they are willing to pay.
>
> “This is a time when politics has to take a back seat to what’s good for the
> American people,” said Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell, a former chairman
> of the Democratic National Committee. “If that means we can’t raise money on
> Wall Street, so be it.”
>
> One congressional Democrat said the financial meltdown has forced the party
> to address regulation.
>
> “It’s not as though Democrats got elected and decided, ‘We’re going to go
> after the financial services industry,’” he said.
>
> Craig’s hiring shows that even as the Democratic political leaders abandon
> the Wall Street ship, the party still has people on board.
>
> And though he’s getting a cool reception from elected Democrats, Craig has
> defenders within the party, too.
>
> “Lawyers have a particular degree of latitude in this regard because we
> still believe that every client is entitled to a defense,” said Jack Quinn,
> chairman of Quinn Gillespie & Associates, who served as counsel to Clinton
> from 1995 to 1997. “Greg is a superb lawyer, and Goldman is fortunate to
> have him on its team.”
>
> The White House says its rules prevent undue influence from former
> administration officials, even though former officials can work as advisers
> rather than as lobbyists to circumvent them.
>
> “The president thinks that he does have tough rules in place, and he’s going
> to continue to make sure that people abide by that rule,” White House
> spokesman Bill Burton told reporters Tuesday.
>
> A senior Senate aide disagreed.
>
> “Barack Obama has done his best to demonize lobbyists. [But] we can pretty
> much predict that [National Economic Council Director] Larry Summers will be
> making millions working for some hedge fund in two years. And Rahm Emanuel
> made millions working for Wasserstein Perella. But it’s a distinction
> without a difference: All these folks are cashing in on their contacts to
> make tons of money. ... We all become more valuable after we serve in
> government,” the aide said.
>
> For liberals, many of whom remain skeptical of Democratic Party ties to the
> corporate world, the jury won’t be in on the regulatory overhaul until the
> fine print is set.
>
> Only then will they know “whether the Congress has the ability to regulate
> Wall Street or Wall Street continues to regulate the Congress,” Sanders
> said.
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