Is Ron Paul going mainstream?

He’s got everyone from South Carolina Republican Sen. Jim DeMint to Minnesota moderate Democrat Collin Peterson to California liberal Barbara Boxer on his side in his audit-the-Fed crusade. He’s drawing liberal support in his push to rein in the cost of the war in Afghanistan. Senate candidates like Democratic Rep. Paul Hodes of New Hampshire are finding Dr. No’s populist economic anger to be useful in the campaign, echoing Paul’s criticism of the Federal Reserve…

But Paul isn’t stopping with the auditing measure. He sees the other financial reform proposals throughout Congress as adding, not subtracting, from the vast Fed powers. And he has allies in the heart of the Democratic Caucus.

Democrats like Peterson and Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, along with liberals such as Ohio Reps. Dennis Kucinich and Marcy Kaptur echo concerns shared by Paul that the Fed gains too much power under the financial reform legislation authored by Frank and the Obama administration. Under Frank’s bill on systemic risk, the Fed would be the primary agent of a new council to regulate big, complex “too big to fail” financial firms, a position that would expand the central bank’s current oversight powers.

“Why are we even thinking about giving more power and authority to the Fed?” Peterson, a rural Democrat, asked during a hearing. “It is one of the more unaccountable parts of federal government. Its governance is influenced more on the wishes of major banks and the American people.”