When Sen. Barack Obama was given the floor to
speak during White House negotiations, according to White House
aides, he did so raising concerns about a House Republican
alternative to the Paulson/Bernanke $700 billion bailout. But those
concerns weren't necessarily his, as he was not aware of the GOP
plan before reviewing notes provided him by Paulson loyalists in
Treasury prior to entering the meeting.
According to an Obama campaign source, the notes were passed to
Obama via senior aides traveling with him, who had been emailed the
document via a current Goldman Sachs employee and Wall Street
fundraiser for the Obama campaign. "It was made clear that the memo
was from 'friends' and was reliable," says the campaign source.
The memo allowed Obama and his fellow Democrats to box in
Republican attendees and essentially took what President Bush had
billed as a negotiating meeting off the rails.
"Paulson and his team have not acted in good faith for this
President or the administration for which they serve," says a House
Republican leader who was not present at the White House meeting,
but who instead is part of the team hammering out the House GOP
alternative. "We keep hearing about how Secretary Paulson is
working with Democrats on this or that, yet he never seems to
consider working with the party that essentially hired him. Perhaps
he's auditioning for a Democratic administration job. Our proposal
didn't just spring forth fully formed; we've been working on this
for several days, and Treasury staff has known about it."
topics:
Barack Obama
