Trench Warfare: Send In the Deputies

Neal Wolin, left, Michael Barr and Diana Farrell. “They have no ego,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says. “They're not worried about how things appear, or who gets the credit.”

By SEWELL CHAN
NYT

WASHINGTON

ON a recent afternoon, Neal S. Wolin entered the ornate limestone headquarters of the United States Chamber of Commerce, across Lafayette Park from his office at the Treasury Department here, and stood before scores of corporate chieftains, financiers and lobbyists.

And then he blasted away.

“The Chamber of Commerce — funded, no doubt, with a good deal of your money — has launched a lavish, aggressive and misleading campaign to defeat the proposed independent agency,” said Mr. Wolin, who, as deputy Treasury secretary, is helping to shape the Obama administration’s proposal for a new federal entity charged with monitoring financial products sold to consumers.

As Mr. Wolin spoke, some of the executives shifted uncomfortably in their seats. When he was done, there was scant applause. Then Thomas J. Donohue, president of the chamber, one of the most potent lobbies in the capital, spoke up.

(More here.)