Of course they're doing this. They have everything to gain by smearing their critics. Remember back to when the banks were all on life support, kept afloat only because of taxpayer bailouts and they still found money to dump into lobbying against reform. It's what they do. The worst part is that too many Democrats are afraid to embrace the reform that they know the public wants. Heaven forbid they support the dirty masses rather than the campaign contributors. The Democrats continue to provide much reason to vote for them other than "we suck less than the GOP."
A well-known Washington lobbying firm with links to the financial industry has proposed an $850,000 plan to take on Occupy Wall Street and politicians who might express sympathy for the protests, according to a memo obtained by the MSNBC program “Up w/ Chris Hayes.”
The proposal was written on the letterhead of the lobbying firm Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford and addressed to one of CLGC’s clients, the American Bankers Association.
CLGC’s memo proposes that the ABA pay CLGC $850,000 to conduct “opposition research” on Occupy Wall Street in order to construct “negative narratives” about the protests and allied politicians. The memo also asserts that Democratic victories in 2012 would be detrimental for Wall Street and targets specific races in which it says Wall Street would benefit by electing Republicans instead.
