On Wednesday, Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) told his NAFCU Congressional Caucusaudience credit unions and community banks should set aside theirdifferences and work together to advance regulatory relief.

Specifically, he suggested credit unions abandon their attemptsto raise the memberbusiness lending cap. Likewise, he said he tells communitybankers to ease up on their efforts to eliminate the credit uniontax exemption.

I'm glad I was clear across the country in Las Vegas, attendingthe ACUMA Conference. Had I been in Washington as originallyplanned, I would have mortified the NAFCU delegation and probablybeen escorted out, because I would have stood up, booed loudly andpossibly thrown something.

Sure, community financial institutions coming together to holdhands and sing Kumbaya sounds great in theory, but the idea thatcredit unions should meet community bankers halfway isridiculous.

For starters, credit unions already work with community banks topromote reg relief. Our trade associations regularly sign jointletters with the bank lobby in support of bills such as Sen.Richard Shelby's (R-Ala.), which passed the Senate Banking Committee July 31. When asked ifcredit unions support bills that would benefit both credit unionsand banks, our folks say yes every single time.

Credit unions don't lobby against what bankers want if itdoesn't affect credit unions. The only exception I'm aware of iswhen credit unions lobbied against the extension of the TransactionAccount Guarantee in late 2012. Conversely, bankers regularlyoppose any and every bill that would benefit credit unions. Banksnot only want their big fat piece of the financial services cake,they want to build a fence around the rest so credit unions don'teven get a crumb.

Take member business lending for example. The banking lobby hasmade it clear that they will never, ever in a million years allow abill that would raise the MBL cap to gain any traction on CapitolHill. I can't help but roll my eyes whenever a new MBL bill isintroduced, because we all know that sucker ain't goingnowhere.

Bankers also turned their vitriol toward the NCUA when itproposed relaxing MBL regs. The NCUA received a record number ofcomment letters on the proposed rule, and about 90% of them were from bankers. The letters included the usualmisrepresentation of the role of credit unions, distorted FederalCredit Union Act statute on MBL and, of course, called for theelimination of the tax exemption.

When I asked ICBA Executive Vice President of CongressionalRelations and Chief Economist Paul Merksi about his trade'sopposition to the rule, he downplayed it. He said MBL isn't a toplegislative priority for the ICBA; working together with creditunions to promote regulatory relief was instead. Apparently he hadjust left Vitter's office.

I've spoken with a few community banks who confessed they'reembarrassed by how aggressively their trade associations lobbyagainst credit unions.

Still, the banking lobby is clearly trying to intimidate theNCUA into withdrawing its rule. I've heard they are even pressuringHouse and Senate committees to call NCUA Chairman Debbie Matz backto the Hill for another hearing to grill her on the MBLproposal.

I can't help but chuckle at anyone who thinks the NCUA Board canbe intimidated or bullied. They obviously don't know Matz verywell. Or Board Member Mark McWatters. Or even the board peacemaker,Vice Chairman Rick Metsger.

I hear over and over again that when credit unions ask forsomething on Capitol Hill, lawmakers tell them they can't supportit unless bankers get something too. However, when bankers wantsomething, the favor is not returned. Case in point: the lawCongress passed in January that required the Federal Reserve Board to have one member with community bankingexperience.

Did credit unions also get a seat at that table? No. Why not?There are roughly as many credit unions as community banks in theU.S. The answer is because credit unions play nice and play fair.That's why suggesting credit unions meet banks halfway on CapitolHill deserves a big fat boo and a hiss, too.

The folks who need to play fair are the bankers, and lawmakersneed to recognize that fact.