WALL STREET THANKS GOP FOR LAX OVERSIGHT:

The Washington Post reports the convention "is being bankrolled and feted to an extraordinary degree by the financial services behemoths...Hardly a meal or cocktail hour will pass that won't find a securities firm or a venture capitalist hosting members of Congress, key committee staffers, Republican Party officials who control the investment of state pension funds." President Bush now lists the financial services industry among his top contributors. It is all payback for the administration's willingness to water down serious corporate reform in the wake of the Enron scandal, and its strong support ofanti-consumer bankruptcy legislation that gives even more power to credit card companies. However, at least one of the industry's key GOP point men may be in hot water over this kind of aggressive fundraising. Rep. Michael Oxley (R-OH), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, "was the guest of honor at 19 of 45 events" and is now under scrutiny by the FBI for election law violations. [more ]