It won’t surprise you to know that the employees of large investment firms have contributed large amounts of money to the political coffers of members of Congress over the years, including McCain and Obama.

While Obama and McCain are trying to out do each other today in their supposedly “non-partisan” efforts to save our economy from the ravages of Wall Street greed, it’s helpful to put things in perspective in terms of where their donations come from.

This chart is from an article in the Wall Street Journal.

Obama and McCain are blaming Wall Street greed for the current economic crisis, but both rely heavily on Wall Street donations. It’s politics (business?) as usual, despite their pronouncements.

According to the same article in the Wall Street Journal:

“Barack Obama and John McCain blamed executive greed Monday for the turmoil in financial markets. But both men, and their parties, have relied heavily on Wall Street cash to fuel their campaigns, and the slowdown threatens to dry up that lucrative source of donations.

“Employees of Merrill Lynch & Co., the investment bank that agreed over the weekend to be sold to Bank of America Corp., have been the largest corporate givers to Sen. McCain’s campaign through the end of July, according to an analysis of federal election records by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics in Washington. Merrill employees have given $297,000 to the Arizona Republican and $191,000 to Sen. Obama, an Illinois Democrat.

“Investment bank Inc., which filed for bankruptcy-court protection early Monday, has been the eighth-largest corporate giver to Sen. Obama’s campaign this election cycle, with Lehman employees donating $361,000. Lehman employees gave $117,500 to Sen. McCain’s campaign.”Democrats, in particular, have become more reliant in recent years on Wall Street money. The second-largest source of donations to all Democratic candidates in the 2008 campaign has been the securities and investment industry. The industry ranks as the third-biggest giver to Sen. Obama’s presidential campaign.

“The securities and investment industry is also the No. 2 giver to the Republican Party and its candidates, and to Sen. McCain.”

So much for the independence of our lawmakers in general, and presidential candidates in particular, and their “oversight” (pun intended) of Wall Street and the SEC.