Equal Time

Late last week Matthew Yglesias took pains to point out that while Congress considers financial reform legislation, Republicans are holding fundraisers with those most direct affected by the reform:

While Barack Obama was in New York yesterday talking about his agenda to reform Wall Street, Senate Republicans, including Richard Burr, John Cornyn, and George Lemieux held a fundraiser with Wall Street’s lobbyists in DC.

Curiously, no mention of Democrat and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's own fundraiser with Wall Street, which his office recently defended. This is from Senatus:

Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) “office is defending the majority leader’s decision to hold a fundraiser with Wall Street executives just as Democrats worked to craft a bill regulating the financial industry,” The Hill reports.

The simple fact of the matter is that both of the major parties engage in these kinds of activities. Pretending that they don't may be a good way to score a quick political point, but it's disingenuous and doesn't add anything substantive to the debate.