The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Democratic leadership is pushing hard for more auto industry bailouts (which we reported on earlier).

The question I always ask whenever a politician is pushing for a bill is who “owns” the politician. Speaker Pelosi’s 2nd largest campaign funding source is from labor unions, including the AFL-CIO (source).

Senator Reid has received millions from the transportation, labor, and finance industries over the years (source), and one of the largest segments of General Motors is GMAC, which is a financial entity that makes loans and mortgages.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sent to send a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson urging him to assist the Big Three auto makers by considering broadening the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program to help the troubled industry.

The two top Democratic leaders in Congress are likely to make the request in a letter to the White House, which could be forwarded as soon as Saturday afternoon, said individuals familiar with the matter. President-elect Barack Obama is generally supportive of the appeal, but at the moment is moving on his own track to assist the industry, these individuals said.

Mr. Obama is scheduled to meet with President George W. Bush at the White House Monday.

The White House has been reluctant to broaden use of the $700 billion program, which was created by Congress just ahead of the election to deal improve credit flows and calm turmoil in financial markets incited by the downturn in the housing economy.

“It was not set up for anything else,” said Bush spokesman Tony Fratto, noting the only assistance authorized by Congress for the auto industry is a $25 billion loan package meant to help the industry retool to meet higher fuel economy standards.

(Read the rest of the article here)

Aren’t you glad that political bribery pays well?