09/25 Morning Report

Does anyone besides me have some questions for Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.? I do. Does he really want family life to be fair game for campaign discussion? Why don’t we discuss his involvement with executives at Fannie mae! Or at least their campaign contributions. Now, admittedly, the romantic involvement ended 10 years ago. But, even in those years, Frank was on the House Banking Committee.

I brought up yesterday, the Clinton years saw the Justice Department forcing banks to make loans to those who did not qualify. Granted, it was part of an effort to end the disgusting practice of “redlining.” But, this pressure definitely expanded the risks and number of sub-prime loans—all in the name of anti-discrimination. Even, Barney Frank got into the act:

In 1991, Frank and former Rep. Joe Kennedy, D-Mass., lobbied for Fannie to soften rules on multi-family home mortgages although those dwellings showed a default rate twice that of single-family homes, according to the Nov. 22, 1991, Boston Globe.

BusinessWeek reported in its Nov. 14, 1994, issue that Fannie Mae called on Frank to exert his influence against a Housing & Urban Development proposal that would force the GSE to focus on minority and low-income buyers and police bias by lenders regardless of their location. Fannie Mae opposed HUD on the issue because it claimed doing so would “ignore the urban middle class.

Meanwhile, the FBI is investigating Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, AIG and others for possible fraud. Now, fraud for having mislead investors and doctoring the books I could understand, though I think that is more properly the role of the SEC. But, according to the media:

The FBI has been looking at lenders who sold home loans to buyers on low or unpredictable incomes and also the investment banks that packaged these loans and sold them on.

. Forgive me…but…isn’t that what Clinton and Barney Frank were pushing for, along with Ted Kennedy apparently?


Should we be surprised that the Democrats overlook their own part in this drama? Probably not. Republicans have been known to do it, too. But, we the people shouldn’t let either group get away with it. Or allow the media to ignore the facts. While the Democrats are making so much hay about how Bush and the Republicans got us into this mess, maybe they should be looking in their own closets.

(…but…then again…given the bias…I’m not holding my breath waiting for the media to come down on their darling Democrats…)