The Hill News

President Obama went after Washington GOP Senate candidate Dino Rossi on Tuesday for having endorsed repealing Wall Street reform.

Obama, during a fundraising appearance on behalf of Sen. Patty Murray (D), made direct reference to Rossi, who became the first Republican Senate candidate earlier this summer to endorse repealing a key boasting point from Democrats' legislative accomplishments.

The president did not mention Rossi by name, and alluded to him only as Murray's Republican opponent, but said it was strange that a Republican would want to repeal the reform package.

"Don't you think that's strange?" Obama asked. 

Obama has warned what Republican leaders who are currently in Congress would do if they take back Congress, but it's been rare so far to see the president directly reference a Republican challenger to a major Democratic incumbent like Murray.

"I could see him saying, 'Here's certain provisions I might modify,'" Obama added. "But just to say we don't need it when we almost had a complete financial meltdown?"

Democrats have put pressure on GOP candidates to say whether or not they would repeal the Wall Street reform or the healthcare reform bill Obama signed into law earlier this year.

Democrats believe that highlighting popular elements of those bills that would be threatened by repeal will work to their advantage in this fall's elections.

"We need to repeal that bill," Rossi said on an ABC News webcast in late July.

Rossi's position on Wall Street reform resembles the po! sition of many other Republican leaders, who had opposed the financial regulatory bill that passed through Congress in July and was signed into law.