Democrats Blast Obama’s Bundler-Turned-Treasury Nominee

Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) has joined ranks with other progressives like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) to blast President Barack Obama’s nomination of Antonio Weiss as the Treasury undersecretary for domestic finance–a big money banker and one of Obama’s top campaign bundlers.

“President Obama recently nominated Antonio Weiss–an investment banker responsible for mergers that help corporations avoid paying their fair share of taxes–to one of the top positions in the Treasury Department,” said a Progressives United PAC petition with Franken’s name. “Join Al Franken and thousands of members of Progressives United in telling President Obama to withdraw this nomination.”

In November, Warren and self-described socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) excoriated Obama for his Wall Street cronyism that rewards connected insiders with top posts. In a Huffington Post piece titled “Enough is enough,” Warren declared, “It’s time for the Obama administration to loosen the hold that Wall Street banks have over economic policy making.”

Warren said Weiss was unqualified to take the top tier Treasury post because he was the head of global investment banking for the financial giant Lazard. Warren added that she knew many people who spent their careers focused on domestic economic issues “and Weiss isn’t one of them.”