In the guise of reform, Schumer obligates donors

Schumer has been a champion of Wall Street financial firms for years, particularly hedge funds, yet now is holding himeslf out as a reformer.

It was Schumer who helped organize hedge fund lobbying efforts and campaign contributions, as reported by the NY Times on March 13, 2007:

On a cold evening in late January, Senator Charles E. Schumer invited a who's who of hedge funds to dinner at Bottega del Vino on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. More than $100 billion worth of wealth sat around the table, including Paul Tudor Jones of Tudor Capital; Steven Cohen of SAC Capital; Stanley Druckenmiller of Duquesne Capital; and James Chanos of Kynikos Capital, according to a person who was briefed on the dinner.

Mr. Schumer, the New York Democrat, had some simple advice for the billionaires in his midst: If you want Washington to work with you, you had better work better with one another.

(snip)

Now, Schumer is holding himself out as a leader in the effort to reform Wall Street as part of the effort by Democrats to raise a populist argument in the run-up to the November elections.

Expect Schumer publicly to treat his former Wall Street friends the way he treated a flight attendant, now that the spotlight is on the money shoved deep into his and other Democrats' pockets for years.

Privately, Schumer will see to it that the "reforms" are for show only, so that he can go back to the Wall Street fundraising well again and again and again.

From Bloomberg: Of the $7.4 million contributed by employees of the 100 largest hedge funds and 50 biggest buyout firms in 2005-06, Democrats received $5 million, Federal Election Commission records show. The biggest checks went to congressional campaign committees led by New York Senator Charles Schumer and Illinois Representative Rahm Emanuel, which took in $2.8 million.