And Wall Street money favors.....

By Lee Russ

Monday, April 24, 2006 at 02:29 PM

Which party raised the most money from Wall Street last year?  Bloomberg has the surprise:

April 24 (Bloomberg) -- Democrats outdid Republicans last year in attracting political donations from investment banks, brokerages and fund managers for the first time since 1994, helped by support from hedge funds and companies such as Merrill Lynch & Co.

Democrats got $13.6 million, or 52 percent of the financial industry's $26.3 million in political donations in 2005, said the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan Washington group that researches the influence of money on elections and public policy. In the two years leading up to the 2004 presidential election, Republicans received 52 percent of the $91.6 million given by the industry.

"Wall Street wants change" on issues such as the Iraq war and the budget deficit, said James Torrey, chairman of the Torrey Funds, which manages about $1 billion. "I'm finding people who are registered Republicans who are saying to me, 'what can I do to help?'"

Wall Street has long been the supporter of either (a) the Republicans as a matter of course, or (b) the party in power.  So what does it say that they gave more to Dems in a year when Republicans controlled both houses of the legislature and the White House?  It tells me that they may be greedy, but they're not stupid.  At some point the gross incompetence of this crop of Republicans endangers everything, including the financial foundations of the country.

Do you get the feeling that, when no microphones or cameras are around, financial types now refer to Bush as their very own Frankenstein monster?