Dem Leaders Backing Occupy Wall Street Receive More Wall St. Contributions Than Republicans

It might not come as a surprise that key Democratic leaders supporting the Occupy Wall Street movement have in fact all raised substantial funds from Wall Street. Heritage reportes that President Obama, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and Congressman Barney Frank have all raised significant funds from Wall Street.

OpenSecrets.org even reveals that the president has raised nearly $12 million in Wall Street donations for the Democratic National Committee. Heritage notes that the amount is more than all the Republican Presidential candidates combined have received from Wall Street.

Yet Obama supports the Occupy Wall Street movement, stating that their protests are a reflection of a “broad-based frustration about how our financial system works." He has also adopted the term “99%” when talking about raising taxes.

Heritage adds:

Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has also spoken favorably for the protesters, saying “I support the message to the establishment, whether it’s Wall Street or the political establishment and the rest, that change has to happen.” Where was this support when the Tea Party was taking on the political establishment, hmm?

Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) parroted Pelosi by saying that these protests are ““symbolic of the frustration that middle class folks and working people feel that the wealthy always seem to have the wind at their backs.” She went on to say that, “[w]e understand their frustration, we applaud their activism and hopefully they’re going to help get the Republicans in Washington’s attention so we shift the Republican’s focus from just Barack Obama’s job, to everyone’s job,”

And finally, Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA), who has raked in more from Wall Street than Pelosi and Wasserman Schultz combined. Just after announcing his support for Occupy Wall Street, Congressman Frank headed to a fundraiser – with Wall Street bankers. How’s that for hypocrisy? Of course, he had an answer for that, saying: “If you take money from them, but you don’t vote [for] the things they want, how does that put you in conflict?”

With key Democrats consistently blasting the financial services industry while showing support for the Occupy movement, will the substantial Wall Street dollars now cease to flow into Democratic coffers?