Has Lloyd Blankfein Become Toxic For Goldman Sachs (GS)

According to Fox Business Network's Charlie Gasparino, people close to Goldman Sachs

believe that Lloyd Blankfein "has become a lightening rod of criticism for the firm since he has been at the forefront of defending the firm's business practices, including selling clients securities even as it shorts, or bets those securities will go down in price." A possible indication of Blankfein's precarious position atop Goldman Sachs (

) is the fact that he did not attend a pitch for a planned massive initial public offering for General Motors, which was held in Washington last week. Blankfein's second in command, Gary Cohn, did not attend the important meetings either. Gasparino wrote that this move was unusual, because of the importance of the GM IPO. J.P. Morgan's

CEO Jamie Dimon and Morgan Stanley's

chief executive John Mack both traveled to Washington D.C. as part of their respective firms' presentations to GM executives and Treasury Department officials, who are overseeing the government's large stake in the automaker. According to Gasparino, "Blankfein's no-show status may show the degree to which the firm's recent troubles - including Congressional investigations into the firm's business practices and a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into whether Goldman committed securities fraud by failing to disclose key pieces of information about a bond deal it sold investors back in 2007 - is starting to impact the firm's client business." Gasparino's entire article can be found

.