CoalBin wrote: Its pretty scary to see democrats (or any party) soaking up major contributions from wall street.
A former colleague of mine ran for Congress with Newt and the boyz back in '94. (Yep, a Republican; I said we were colleagues, not political soul-mates! And I used to tell him he was nuts, too.) He called me up one day and told me he'd gone to see the PACs the day before. He had studied the issues and positions and had felt prepared for the meetings.
But, when he got to each meeting, he was dismayed to discover that all they wanted to know was one thing: whether he was going to win.
Institutional contributors are no less like big business than big business. They act more on practical self-interest than principle. Put another way, there's very little value in having a phone number that doesn't belong to an incumbent after an election. So, when you see "Wall St" contributing, think of it as the Las Vegas oddsmakers betting on the result.
He had the good fortune to win. And got an education in the process.