Wall Street Has A Batch Of Very Unsavory Favorite Candidates

Bill Maher has told people that this Alan Grayson response to GOP hacks Nicolle Wallace and P.J. O'Rourke is the only instance of his Real Time audience ever giving one of his guests a standing ovation. And now there's a pretty good song based on it! Not a song, though, that the Senator from Wall Street, Chuck Schumer ($23,059,037), is likely to play at the next fundraising event he or one of his allies throws for Wall Street's pick for the open Florida senate seat, Patrick Murphy ($2,260,848). What are those number amounts next to their names? It's the amount of legalized bribery that each legislator has accepted from the Finance Sector in their careers. Schumer's had a long career-- as a congressional Wall Street lackey-- so he's got a huge amount, more, in fact, than any other Member of Congress in history with the exception of few candidates who ran for president. Murphy is relatively new but no one in Congress-- not ever-- has been given as much Wall Street loot as Murphy is such a short amount of time. So why is that?

I'll answer that question with another question. How do you know who carries water for Wall Street? Easy: Wall Street pays them-- and pays them a lot. Of the top 10 recipients of legalized bribes from the Financial Sector so far this election cycle, 8 are Republicans and 2 are Democrats. Let's take a look-see at who the corrupt culprits are and how much cash they've gotten and then we'll try to figure out why. Remember this is just for the House (not the Senate) and just for this one election cycle, which has over a year to run:

• John Boehner (R-OH)- $1,133,340
• Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)- $768,500
• Patrick Murphy (D-FL)- $659,600
• Jeb Hensarling (R-TX)- $521,715
• Paul Ryan (R-WI)- $490,875
• Bob Dold (R-IL)- $431,593
• Patrick McHenry (R-NC)- $425,900
• Steve Stivers (R-OH)- $384,102
• Bruce Poliquin (R-ME)- $353,033
• Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)- $340,807

The two biggest recipients need no explanation. Boehner and McCarthy, respectively Speaker and Majority Leader, control the House's agenda. They decide what gets on the floor and what doesn't and who gets on which committees and who doesn't. Whomever holds those positions is who Wall Street wants to own. Simple. We'll come back to Murphy (#3) in a moment and discuss his special case when we look at the only other Democrat on the list, Maryland Establishment shill Chris Van Hollen. But first, the rest of the Republicrooks.

Hensarling's $521,715 (and his career-long $6,610,960 from the banksters) is easy to explain. He's not just a loud opponent to any consumer protects for banking and insurance customers, he's the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, the guy who is dismantling, piece by piece, Dodd Frank on behalf of Wall Street's worst criminals.

Paul Ryan's contributions from Wall Street (#5) are about to shoot up into the stratosphere. He's about to replace Boehner as Speaker and he just hired David Hoppe, a shady lobbyist adept at extorting money from banksters, as his chief of staff. They've already given Ryan $5,420,978 since he was first elected in 1998 and have been thrilled with his work on their behalf, first as the Budget Committee chairman and now as the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. That was the best $5,420,978 they ever invested!

#6, Bob Dold from Illinois is an interesting case-- $431,593 so far this year, for a very tough reelection battle against another Wall Street shill, grotesquely corrupt New Dem Brad Schneider who he beat last year. Now, keep in mind that the financial sector showered Schneider with $1,123,544 in his short career and has given him another $135,381 this cycle, not as much as Dold, but far from nothing. Old is a Wall Street-supporting conservative on Ryan's House Ways and Means Committee and they're loathe to lose his services, but if he loses to Schneider... they don't lose much. Schneider was always helpful with Wall Street's agenda and is one of the few Democrats who openly admits-- as do Murphy and Van Hollen-- that he is open to cuts in entitlements (i.e., gutting Social Security and Medicare). The only nightmare for the banksters would be if Schneider loses the primary to a far more progressive Democrat, Nancy Rotering, and that she beats Dold, a likely scenario. That's why this year's bankster contributions in IL-10 look like this:

• Bob Dold (R)- $431,593
• Brad Schneider (New Dem)- $135,381
• Nancy Rotering (D)- $68,298

Rotering understands-- as the banksters do-- that there's not much difference between Dold and Schneider on the issues most important to them. The other day she told us, "Both of my opponents, Brad Schneider and Bob Dold are part of the Washington establishment that has failed our families by stacking the economic deck against them. Both Scheinder and Dold have taken hundreds of thousands from the financial industry (450k for Schneider and over 800k for Dold) and then used their power to do the financial industry's bidding. Our families will not catch the economic break they need if we continue sending the same old people to Washington to do the same old thing. I will be new progressive voice watching out for families not the financial industry."

And that brings us to North Carolina Republican closet case Patrick McHenry, who's in a safely gerrymandered red district (R+11) and doesn't face any serious opposition. Yet... the Financial Sector has given him $2,966,186 since he was first elected in 2004 (and already $425,900 this year). It's not just because they like diminutive closet cases ready to go to any lengths in a quest for power. McHenry is an up-and-comer in the dysfunctional GOP House Leadership, the Chief Deputy Whip since last year and, perhaps more importantly, a Member of the House Financial Services Committee, always eager to do Wall Street's bidding (like act as an attack dog against Elizabeth Warren) and the chairman of the TARP, Financial Services and Bailouts of Public and Private Programs subcommittee of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Next up: former Bank One/Bank of America lobbyist Steve Stivers. Again, safely gerrymandered and ethnically-cleansed red district that carefully skirts Columbus (R+6) and is designed not just to prevent a Democrat from winning, but to also make sure no non-Franklin County teababgger can ever cobble together a natural majority. Stivers has no opposition so far this cycle. He wasn't elected until 2010 but Wall Street has showered him with legalistic bribery, $3,411,738 in his first 4 years in Congress and now this keel $384,102 chunk. And he's earned it, working diligently against his own constituents and for the banksters from his little perchs at the Financial Services Committee and on the Capital Markets and on the Insurance subcommittees.

The last Republicrook on the Top 10 list is Maine sociopath Bruce Poliquin, who represents a blue-leaning district (D+2) and would be likely to be defeated next year if not for the gross incompetence of the DCCC. (Obama beat McCain in this district 54-44% and then beat Romney 53-44%.) Before running for office Poliquin, a mutimillionaire Tea Party loon, was a bankster in Chicago. He was Maine's appointed Treasurer and used his office to further enrich himself. He's a freshman who won the seat in a 3-way race and immediately got onto the House Financial Services Committee, where he has endeared himself to Wall Street and, like Stivers, serves on the Capital Markets subcommittee. He's widely considered one of Congress' most corrupt members and the Finance Sector has been happy to give him checks amounting to $644,183 so far in his miserable congressional career.

And that brings to the two unsavory Democrats running for Senate, New Dem and Wall Street darling Patrick Murphy, an opportunistic "ex"-Republican who tends to always vote with the Republicans, especially at the House Financial Services Committee, where he is a low-ranking member but is widely regarded, along with Jim Himes and John Delaney to speak for the Wall Street banksters. He is the Democrat who most backs the banksters' agenda for complete dominance. And now they want him in the Senate, where he can do far more damage. A Goldman Sachs patsy, the Finance Sector has loaded him up with $2,260,848 during his brief tenure in Congress (part of which is the $659,600 they've given him so far this year). Getting Patrick Murphy into the Senate is Wall Street's top electoral priority for 2016. His $659,600 haul this year is a lot more than the Finance Sector gave Alan Grayson, a former economist-- $3,625. That should tell you something about who the banksters want in the Senate... and who they fear.

They are also extremely eager to get the only other Democrat on this List of Shame, Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen, into the Senate. Van Hollen, a hideously failed former chair of the DCCC, is the Ranking Democrat on the Budget Committee and is regarded as someone who never holds the banksters' feet to the fire. The banksters appreciate his friendliness and have given him $1,935,871 career-long (considerably more than they've given to Congresswoman Donna Edwards who he is trying to defeat for the open Senate seat. This cycle, just $65,290 compared to Van Hollen's hefty 2015 $340,807 payoff).

If you'd like to keep Wall Street allies like Patrick Murphy and Chris Van Hollen out of the Senate, you can help both Donna Edwards and Alan Grayson on this Blue America ActBlue page.