The Times buried the lead on this one. I missed it, but Yves didn't. From the Geithner profile:

A bill sent recently by the Treasury to Capitol Hill would give the Obama administration extensive new powers to inject money into or seize systemically important firms in danger of failure. It was drafted in large measure by Davis Polk & Wardwell, a law firm that represents many banks and the financial industry’s lobbying group.

Oopsie!

Mr. Geithner also hired Davis Polk to represent the New York Fed during the A.I.G. bailout.

Incest is nicest!

Treasury officials say they inadvertently [Uh huh! [nods sagely]] used a copy of Davis Polk’s draft sent to them by the Federal Reserve as a template for their own bill, with the result that the proposed legislation Treasury sent to Capitol Hill bore the law firm’s computer footprints. And they point to several significant changes to that draft that “better protect the taxpayer,” in the words of Andrew Williams, a Treasury spokesman [Bien sur!].

But others say important provisions in the original industry bill remain. Most significant, the bill does not require that any government rescue of a troubled firm be done at the lowest possible cost, as is required by the F.D.I.C. when it takes over a failed bank

So if the "significant" changes don't affect how much money the taxpayer pays, how significant can they be?

Treasury officials said that is because they would use the rescue powers only in rare and extreme cases that might require flexibility. [Of course, of course.] Karen Shaw Petrou, managing director of the Washington research firm Federal Financial Analytics, said it essentially gives Treasury “a blank check.” [like so many other blank checks already written]

Oh my golly! How did that provision slip in? I'm shocked.