It should be no surprise that State Dept nominee Robert Hormats and Robert Rubin are well-acquainted, both Bobs having served their country at Goldman Sachs during the eighties. During the nineties, when Rubin was in the Clinton administration, they were a sort of Washington-Wall Street tandem, consistently agreeing on what was best for global financial markets. Hormats would appear on cable TV saying what his old boss should do, Rubin would oblige, and Hormats would lavish praise on him. So Rubin’s fingerprints are all over an Obama pick, once again.

Hormats’s homages to Rubin appear to have been part of the vast Wall Street conspiracy to portray Rubin as public-minded policy god, despite his smug, frat boy bearing. At times, these words of praise have been completely over-the-top. Here are some highlights.

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Senate majority leader Harry Reid says there’ll be no movement on health care legislation until after the summer break, missing Obama’s August deadline. (NYT)

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke proposes new consumer protection laws for those with mortgage and home-equity loans. (WSJ)

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein is hoping to win back the public’s favor by paying back the government in full. (Bloomberg)

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will be in charge of dispersing new funding to states who show positive school reforms. (NYT)

Citigroup names three new board members, including the dean of Stanford’s business school Robert Joss and CEO of Ripplewood Holdings Timothy Collins. (Bloomberg)

Our report on Obama’s State Department nominee Bob Hormats is starting to get some press.

As a Goldman Sachs exec, Hormats had some dubious ties to the genocidal regime in Sudan through a Chinese oil deal. In the name of accountability, we published a report exposing his background and listed questions we wanted lawmakers to ask Hormats during the confirmation process.

The Financial Times and Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone both used our report to expose Hormats’ past in articles today. The story has also been picked up by the Huffington Post, Attackerman, and Open Left.

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In an address last night, President Obama vows to protect the middle class as he taxes those who earn over $1 million a year to pay for his health care bill. (Reuters)

Director of Obama’s budget office Peter Orszag says overhauling the health care system could be the key to boosting the economy. (NYT)

FDIC Chair Sheila Bair suggests the nation’s largest financial institutions should pay into a fund that covers losses if the banks then fail, which would take some responsibility off the government’s shoulders. (Bloomberg)

The bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has now cost the government $100 billion. (CNN)

Republican Senators Richard Lugar and George Voinovich join Democrats to knock down an amendment to expand the rights of gun owners. (NYT)

Two weeks ago we started taking a closer look at America’s Health Insurance Plans, or AHIP. Since the organization’s website had no staff listing, we asked a simple question: who works for AHIP?

There’s still plenty of work to be done in filling out the profiles of the movers and shakers at the insurance industry lobby — board members, staff, and lobbyists on contract — and that work will continue, in addition to the research we’re collaborating on with the Huffington Post Investigative Fund. For now, here are some basic observations about the names and faces behind AHIP.

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In an address tonight, President Obama will have to live up to his reputation to explain complicated topics in a simple way, as he rallies citizen support for his health care plan. (NYT)

SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro counters Obama’s call for the Fed to tighten its grip on financial industries, saying it’s a job for a regulatory council. (Bloomberg)

Senators cancel the sale of more fighter planes after urgings from Defense Secretary Robert Gates who wants to retool Pentagon priorities in coming months. (WSJ)

Saddled with paying back government bailout money, Morgan Stanley posts its third-straight quarterly loss. (Reuters)

President of Yale University Richard Levin admits he and other top universities must cut spending to offset endowment losses. (Bloomberg)

On Sunday I blogged about the key role of Bob Hormats, Obama’s recent nominee for undersecretary of state, in the stock offering of PetroChina, a company linked to Sudan’s genocidal regime.

Hormats’s Goldman Sachs connection has been criticized elsewhere, but his Sudan ties deserve more scrutiny.

This is no insignificant matter: as a Goldman Sachs executive, Hormats threw his weight behind a stock offering that helped to finance Sudan’s genocidal regime. He did so in a deceptive and, as it turned out, illegal manner. And he did so despite the fervent opposition of a broad coalition concerned about the link between oil revenues and the Sudan genocide. This coalition included government officials (including members of the Reagan administration), labor unions, human rights organizations, and religious groups.

The Public Accountability Initiative (PAI, the 501c3 behind LittleSis) will be releasing the Hormats research in the form of a report and circulating it to various stakeholders and Senate offices. The introduction is below, the full report is here.

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CIT Group, refused a government bailout, scraped together money from bondholders to stay above water. (NYT)

As taxing the rich to pay for health care becomes a heated issue, Republicans get angry, and RNC Chairman Michael Steele accuses Obama of “conducting a reckless experiment with our economy.” (WSJ)

Director of the NEC Larry Summers encourages banks to lend more to stimulate growth for 2010. (Bloomberg)

Chairman Ben Bernanke says the Fed is “confident” it can stem off inflation if, or when, it comes. (WSJ)

California will vote on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget today, which finally accounts for a $26 billion deficit. (Reuters)

While Goldman Sachs‘ managing partners prepare their lists for Fifth Avenue shopping sprees on bonus day, the firm’s public relations department is grappling with an image problem that has some staying power. Goldman’s record profiteering at a time of chronic unemployment and systemic crisis along with Matt Taibbi’s superb article on Goldman’s role in market manipulation and the high-profile arrest of former Goldman programmer Sergey Aleynikov, who allegedly downloaded Goldman code that can be used to manipulate markets (who knew?), have conspired to create a perfect storm of populist backlash directed at the firm.

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Obama’s budget director Peter Orszag delivers a health care confessional on “Fox News Sunday,” revealing that legislation may not be completed by August, as promised. (NYT) He also did not deny claims that under the new bill, federal money would not be used to pay for abortions. (NYT)

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius meets with the National Governors Association to quell their concerns of rising Medicare costs in Congress’ health care legislation. (NYT)

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will sign a defense pact with India today, giving a boon to American arms industries like Lockheed Martin and Boeing. (Reuters)

Today’s the day of truth for CIT Group if they declare bankruptcy or have scrounged up enough in loans to keep themselves afloat. (Bloomberg)

Charles Schwab denies allegations from New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo of civil fraud. (Reuters)