Critics Talk Up Obama's Goldman Sachs Connections

Opponents decry White House ties to the hated megabank

Conservatives opposed to Democratic proposals for financial reform have expressed some skepticism regarding the new SEC suit against Goldman Sachs. The timing just looks too perfect--guaranteed to whip up populist sentiment ahead of financial reform debates. Now, in a slight shift of strategy, Obama's critics are pointing to another peculiarity of Democrats' embrace of anti-Wall Street sentiment: the administration is rife with Goldman Sachs connections.

• Both Parties Are Deep in Wall Street Money  "Both parties have attempted to warn the American people about the other side's long-standing affiar with Wall Street," notes Reason's Peter Suderman. "Which side has been seduced the most fully, the most often? Who cares? It's a threesome." That's his take on a Daily Caller article on Wall Street money in Washington.

• Goldman Employees Gave to Obama  "President Bush's connections to Enron were well-hyped during the company's accounting debacle that rippled through the economy," writes J.P. Freire at The Washington Examiner. Yet numbers on OpenSecrets.org show "compaign contributions from Goldman Sachs employees to president Obama are nearly seven times as much as President Bush received from Enron workers."

• Follow the Men  "His administration is infested with them," writes conservative Michelle Malkin. Some of her examples:

Goldman Sachs partner Gary Gensler is Obama's Commodity Futures Trading Commission head ... Goldman Sachs kept White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel on a $3,000 monthly retainer while he worked as Clinton’s chief fundraiser... Former Goldman Sachs lobbyist Mark Patterson serves under Geithner as his top deputy and overseer of TARP bailout ... White House National Economic Council head Larry Summers reaped nearly $2.8 million in speaking fees from many of the major financial institutions and government-bailout recipients he now polices, including JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Lehman Brothers, and Goldman Sachs ... [Larry] Summers's [former] boss, then–secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin, was former co-chairman of ... Goldman Sachs

• Or Follow Goldman's New Lawyer  Gawker's Adrian Chen is one of many to raise an eyebrow at former White House counsel Greg Craig's defection. In the headline, he jokes, "Goldman Sachs Hoping Old White House Counsel Still Has Obama's Cell Number."