Dems Ramp Up Push for Wall Street Reform

The DNC has a new ad calling on Republicans -- especially Republicans in the Senate -- to drop their unified opposition to banking reform.

Salon's Mike Madden sums up the GOP position:

The GOP has, essentially, thrown its lot in with big banks by opposing the Democratic reform proposals -- while simultaneously insisting that Democrats are the ones who are doing the banks' bidding. The shred of evidence used to support that particular theory is the fund the Senate bank reform bill would set up -- paid for by banks -- to help wind down massive financial firms that fail; Republicans are calling it a permanent bailout fund, ignoring the source of the money and the purpose of the fund.

Along those lines, Sen. Richard Shelby(R-AL) told an "enthusiastic crowd" that electing Roy Blunt to the U.S. Senate "would help immensely" in their effort to block meaningful financial reform. Reuters was there:

[At a bankers conference in Washington, DC], attendees told Republican Senator Richard Shelby they view as unfair the Obama administration's proposal to set up a new government watchdog for financial consumers that would protect Americans from deceptive credit cards and abusive mortgage loans.

Asked what bankers could do to change the agenda, Shelby said, "What you can do is elect more Republicans to the U.S. Senate, that would help immensely." He asked each of the attendees to send $10,000 to Roy Blunt, a former House leader who is now running for Senate as a Republican in Missouri.

It's really quite simple on this issue: Democrats are trying to protect consumers and taxpayers, and the GOP is protecting Wall Street's abusive practices and obscene profits.