Leno Jokes About GOP in Goldman Sachs' Pockets, Yet 75% of Firms Donations Went to Dems

April 27th, 2010 1:09 PM

Monday evening, Tonight Show host Jay Leno joked about Wall Street reform.  As reported on The New York Times's Web site, he said:

Last week, President Obama gave a speech in New York City about his plan to reform these rules on Wall Street, you know? And one embarrassing moment. When the head of Goldman Sachs was going through security, he was asked to empty his pockets and five Republican senators fell out.

The truth, of course, is that Goldman Sachs has consistently given much more money to Democrats than to Republicans.  For the 2008 election cycle, as detailed at OpenSecrets.org, 75 percent of the almost $6 million in political contributions made by the investment bank's political action committee and employees went to Democrats.  Goldman Sachs's donations made it the second-biggest contributor to Obama’s presidential election campaign.

Leno's gag would have been funnier, I think, if it weren't so misleading.