Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) on Sunday called on supporters to reject one of President Obama’s nominees to the Treasury Department.  Franken criticized nominee Antonio Weiss in no uncertain terms, arguing Obama had nominated the wrong person for the job of Treasury undersecretary for domestic finance.

He argued Weiss would not put the middle class first, and that he was too close to Wall Street.  Franken wrote that Weiss has worked on manuevers called “inversions,” which are mergers that seek to lower a company’s tax burden in the United States.

“More than six years after the crash, the American economy is still recovering,” Franken writes. “We got into that mess because we were willing to let Wall Street police itself. Foxes make poor guards of henhouses. We know that through bitter experience, and I’m not willing to let it happen again.”

Franken is joining Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and others in opposing Weiss, setting up an internal Democratic Party fight with Obama. Weiss is an executive at the investment banking firm Lazard.

When Gary Gensler direct from Goldlman Sachs was nominated to head the Commodities Futures Tradiing Commission, Carl Levin spoke to him early on. Cutting to the chase, levin asked, “Does speculation affect prices?”  “Yes,” said Gensler.  There was long silence.  The answer had come with astonishing ease,  Here was someone ‘tainted’ by Wall Street who was clearly capable of being honest.  Has anyone asked Weiss tough questions?  Asnwers could surprise?