"Surfing amid Wall St. waves; Schumer buoyed by advocacy role" by Eric Lipton and Raymond Hernandez, New York Times | December 14, 2008
WASHINGTON - As the financial crisis jolted the nation in September, Senator Charles E. Schumer was consumed. He traded telephone calls with bankers, then became one of the first officials to promote a Wall Street bailout. The New York Democrat spent hours in closed-door briefings and a weekend helping congressional leaders nail down details of the $700 billion rescue package.
The next day, Schumer appeared at a breakfast fund-raiser in midtown Manhattan for Senate Democrats. Addressing a score of finance industry executives, he warned that a bailout would be a hard sell on Capitol Hill. Then he offered some reassurance: The business leaders could count on the Democrats to help steer the nation through the financial turmoil.
"We are not going to be a bunch of crazy, antibusiness liberals," one executive said, summarizing Schumer's remarks. "We are going to be effective, moderate advocates for sound economic policies, good responsible stewards you can trust." The message clearly resonated. The next week, executives at firms represented at the breakfast sent in more than $135,000 in campaign donations.
Schumer plays an unrivaled role in Washington as beneficiary, advocate, and overseer of an industry that is his hometown's most important business. An exceptional fund-raiser - a "jackhammer," someone who knows him says, for whom "'no' is the first step to 'yes,' " - Schumer led the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee for the last four years, raising a record $240 million while increasing donations from Wall Street by 50 percent. That money helped the Democrats gain power in Congress, elevated Schumer's standing in his party, and increased the industry’s clout in the capital.
Translation: the Democrats are DEAD!!! They are now cock-sucking, corporate-serving, DemocraPs!
But in building support, he has embraced the industry's free-market, deregulatory agenda more than almost any other Democrat in Congress, even backing some measures now blamed for contributing to the financial crisis.
What a piece of work, huh? And he's a JEW, too!!!!
Schumer, a member of the Banking and Finance Committees, repeatedly took other steps to protect industry players from government oversight and tougher rules. Schumer succeeded in limiting efforts to regulate credit-rating agencies, for example; sponsored legislation that cut fees paid by Wall Street firms to finance government oversight; pushed to let banks have lower capital reserves; and called for the revision of regulations to make corporations' balance sheets more transparent.
What a slimy hypocrite!!!
Calling himself "an almost obsessive defender of New York jobs," Schumer has often talked of the need to avoid excessive regulation of an industry that is increasingly threatened by global competition. At the same time, Schumer has cast himself as a populist who looks out for the middle class.
In an interview, Schumer said that until the recent market turmoil, he did not fully appreciate how much risk Wall Street had assumed and how much damage its practices could inflict on ordinary Americans. "It is a learning process, no question about it," Schumer said, adding that he now believes investors and average consumers must be better protected.
While HE "LEARNS," Americans are shaken down and looted!
But he defended his record. "Wall Street and Main Street are tied together," he said. "Oftentimes, they are not in conflict. When they are in conflict, I tend to side with Main Street."
Do I have permission to puke, readers?
While Schumer has taken some pro-consumer stances, his critics fault him for tilting too far toward Wall Street in balancing his responsibilities.
"He is serving the parochial interest of a very small group of financial people, bankers, investment bankers, fund managers, private equity firms, rather than serving the general public," said John C. Bogle, the founder and former chairman of the Vanguard Group. "It has hurt the American investor first and the average American taxpayer."
Well, we all know who Congress and the government work for. The power of banks is an awesome spectacle.
Schumer has collected over his career more in campaign contributions from the securities and investment industry than any of his peers in Congress, with the exception of Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democratic nominee for president in 2004, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which analyzed federal data.
Oh, you can imagine how proud this Massachusetts resident is!
So the BANKS BOUGHT HIM OFF after the BCCI investigation, huh?
First Vietnam, then Iraq, now this!
In the last two-year election cycle, he helped raise more than $120 million for the Democrats' Senate campaign committee. Donors often mention his "pro-business message" and record of addressing their concerns.
Translation: Schumer is in their pocket!
That may help explain why some of the wealthiest financiers in Manhattan attended the Sept. 22 breakfast where Schumer assessed the political landscape as debate over the bailout was beginning.
"On the right, you have those who view any government intervention as a threat to free markets," one executive recalled Schumer explaining. "On the left, you have people who choose to view this as a government handout to the rich. In the middle, you have everyone who knows and takes the Treasury secretary seriously and recognizes that if something is not done here, we could be staring into an abyss."What Chuck is saying is you have the PEOPLE and you have the POLITICIANS working on behalf of THEIR MASTERS!!!
And that AIN'T YOU and ME, readers!
--more--"
