Scott Brown and Rudy Giuliani

Brown’s defense of the financial industry has not been ignored by Wall Street. Wall Street’s two largest political enforcers are also out fighting to elect him:

– The Wall Street front group FreedomWorks is mobilizing get out the vote efforts for Brown this weekend. FreedomWorks organized the very first tea party protests, and has used its extensive staff and resources to mobilize rallies and advocacy campaigns on behalf of corporate interests. Dick Armey, who as a corporate lobbyist represented AIG, Lehman Brothers, and Merrill Lynch during the bailouit, is the leader of FreedomWorks. FreedomWorks is also funded and chaired by Steve Forbes and Frank Sands of Sands Capital Management.

– The Wall Street front group Club for Growth is strongly “boosting” Brown and is expected to run ads in support for him. According to recent disclosures, the Club for Growth is funded by a $1.4 million dollar donation from investor Stephen Jacksons of Stephens Groups Inc, a $1.4 million dollar donation from broker Richard Gilder, and $210,000-$630,000 donations from at least 10 other investors and financial industry professionals. The Club is also supporting a slate of candidates to repeal health reform, while its other endorsed candidates have opposed a financial truth commission.

According to a ThinkProgress analysis of Brown’s latest Federal Elections Commission disclosures (part 1, part 2, part 3), filed on Jan. 8 and 11, business executives and Wall Street executives have lavished Brown’s campaign coffers with 11th hour contributions:

A report on financial industry compensation by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo found that large financial corporations — including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and Citigroup — spend between 25% to 50% of total revenue on paying out executive compensation. While the finance industry often refuses to offer lines of credit to American businesses struggling in this economy, they operate largely as vehicles to make bankers richer.

Brown casts himself as an everyday man, telling reporters “it’s me against the machine.” In fact, Brown is teaming up with Wall Street bankers to kill financial reform and preserve a system of Bush-era unfettered capitalism.

(ThinkProgress interns Nick McClellan and DJ Carella contributed research to this post.)

Today, the New York Times reported that the Pentagon is “stepping up internal discussions on how gay men and lesbians might be able to serve openly in the armed services” in anticipation that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) will be repealed. A small group — put together by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen to prepare for congressional hearings — recently met on the issue:

A one-page memorandum drafted by staff members as a discussion point for the meeting said that the chiefs could adopt the view that “now is not the time” because of the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and that the military would be better off delaying the start of the repeal process until 2011.

The same memorandum, according to a military official who has seen it, also said that “every indicator of opinion over the past 16 years shows movement toward nondiscrimination based on orientation” and that “in time the law will change.”

Indeed, recent polling confirms this indicator. ThinkProgress obtained results from a November poll on DADT conducted by Democracy Corps that shows likely voters support ending the ban on gay men and women serving openly in the military by a 55 to 35 percent margin:

Pollsters Stan Greenberg and David Walker note that they “intentionally phrased this question using the most conservative language possible to avoid any suggestion of bias”; other surveys have shown even higher levels of support for repealing DADT. More from the results of likely voters:

– 53 percent of self-ascribed Republicans oppose lifting the ban. 71 percent of Democrats favor repeal, as do 58 percent of Independents.

– Only 11 percent believe that DADT makes the military stronger. 61 percent believe it makes no difference either way.

– 63 percent believe that a repeal of DADT should be implemented across the military all at the same time, rather than branch by branch.

– Catholic voters approve of repealing the ban in even higher numbers than the general public, with 64 percent in support and 29 percent in opposition.

In today’s White House press briefing, spokesman Robert Gibbs responded to today’s New York Times story, saying, “[T]here have been discussions in the Pentagon — they will continue. We don’t have — I don’t yet have a time line out of those discussions. But I know they do continue.” In November, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) said that a DADT repeal would “likely be included as part of next year’s Department of Defense authorization bill in both chambers of Congress.” However, in a C-SPAN interview set to air Sunday, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-MO), who played a “major role” in crafting DADT, said that he opposes repealing the law.