There's a lot of ammunition for Dems to use against Republicans in pushing financial reform, and the pile just keeps getting bigger.
Last week Mitt Romney and Michael Steele headlined an RNC fundraiser at the home of John Paulson. Yeah, that John Paulson, the one whose investment scheme led to the fraud charges leveled by the SEC at Goldman Sachs on Friday.
That's just one more embarrassing incident for Steele and Romney, who both seem to be racking them up these days. Of much greater consequence for the financial regulation debate and the Republicans' efforts to derail it is the closed door meeting Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn had with Wall Street executives earlier in the month.
Obama made it a central issue in his Saturday radio address.
The changes sought by Democrats "have not exactly been welcomed by the people who profit from the status quo – as well their allies in Washington," Obama said in his address. "This is probably why the special interests have spent a lot of time and money lobbying to kill or weaken the bill. Just the other day, in fact, the leader of the Senate Republicans and the chair of the Republican Senate campaign committee met with two dozen top Wall Street executives to talk about how to block progress on this issue.
"Lo and behold, when he returned to Washington, the Senate Republican Leader came out against the common-sense reforms we've proposed."
Asked about the meeting on CNN's State of the Union Sunday , McConnell rejected any suggestion that the meeting was used to craft ways to block financial regularly reform. Ultimately, McConnell said Cornyn was there because he will be voting on the reform legislation....
"Well, we certainly didn't talk about blocking the bill," the Kentucky Republican replied. "I don't know anybody who's in favor of blocking this bill."
Says the Senator who spent last week twisting arms to get all 41 Republican Senators to sign a letter saying they wouldn't vote for this bill. With that opening, Reid is pushing the backroom dealings of McConnell and Cornyn.
"Senators McConnell and Cornyn should immediately reveal what they discussed earlier this month during secret, closed-door meeting with Wall Street executives in New York City," Reid spokesman Jim Manley said Monday....
"Since Republicans appear to be conducting backroom negotiations with these same people who took our economy to the brink of collapse, the public deserves to know what secret deals and carve-outs Republicans are offering Wall Street executives in exchange for their support," Manley shot back.
Putting McConnell on the spot for this meeting is smart politically, since he doesn't "know anybody who's in favor of blocking this bill."