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Media Mum on Barney Frank’s Fannie Mae Love Connection — Geez, this stuff just writes itself.
Are journalists playing favorites with some of the key political figures involved with regulatory oversight of U.S. financial markets?
MSNBC’s Chris Matthews launched several vitriolic attacks on the Republican Party on his Sept. 17, 2008, show, suggesting blame for Wall Street problems should be focused in a partisan way. However, he and other media have failed to thoroughly examine the Democratic side of the blame game.
Prominent Democrats ran Fannie Mae, the same government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) that donated campaign cash to top Democrats. And one of Fannie Mae’s main defenders in the House – Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., a recipient of more than $40,000 in campaign donations from Fannie since 1989 – was once romantically involved with a Fannie Mae executive.
The media coverage of Frank’s coziness with Fannie Mae and his pro-Fannie Mae stances has been lacking. Of the eight appearances Frank made on the three broadcasts networks between Jan. 1, 2008, and Sept. 21, 2008, none of his comments dealt with the potential conflicts of interest… The Washington Post reported Frank, who is openly gay, had a relationship with Herb Moses, an executive for the now-government controlled Fannie Mae. The column revealed the two had split up at the time but also said Frank was referring to Moses as his “spouse.” Another Washington Post report said Frank called Moses his “lover” and that the two were “still friends” after the breakup.
John are you seriously suggesting that the media is wearing blinders?!?! That is unheard of…
And the hits just keep comin!! This is just the beginning.
John, let’s remember that McCain’s CAMPAIGN MANAGER was on the payroll of Fannie and Freddie for being close to John McCain, no other reason.
$15k a month sounds like nice coin if you can get it… goes further to your point that the guy is surrounded by conflicts of interest and incompetents. No wonder he’s gonna lose badly.
I expect that there are dozens more in rather similiar circumstances as for as being best buddies with people that donated large sums of cash.
Excuse me,
But does ANYONE think that looking at EITHER side, will still get us ALL BF’ed in the end.
WHO killed all the OVERSIGHT, the monitors, the CONTROLS for these systems??
#4: that’d be the two Republicans in Congress who were instrumental in getting the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 repealed in 1999 under Bill Clinton: Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX) and Rep. James Leach (R-IA).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass-Steagall_Act
Also the Republican-sponsored Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramm-Leach-Bliley_Act
Isn’t Leach the guy that Barack Obama had speaking at his convention?
The guy who sponsored ban on internet gambling?
Why yes he was!
Sorry for the longest post in history.
Let’s see – Barney Frank got $40K over 19 years. That’s chump change for the McCain crew. They get more than that for 3 months:
http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=25263
I have a fantasy of having all of the investment details of every congressperson, executive branch employee and member of the fed being public knowledge. Not just who’s contributing to their compaigns but what are their personal investments in.
Hey, I can dream can’t I?
FUnny how selective memory can be. Let me try to make it very simple. Who are the ones not paying the mortgages back causing the problems. Surely not the fat cat republicans, with all the wealth they’ve stolen from the common man.
As Gomer Pyles would say
“Surprise, Surprise, Surprise” –
It’s the unskilled low dollar wage earners who inhabit the lower end of the democrat party, who are dominated by the elitists, like Obama, Rangle and Kennedy, who think they were given the god given right to rule.
So, the real story of how this mess was allowed to continue was, per the New York Times, a bastion of conservative thinking
On Sept. 11, 2003 the New York Times ran an article that stated: “The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.” Democrats in Congress blocked any actions and by their failure prevented a solution to the predictable future problems.
In response to the Bush Administration overhaul plans, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass), chairman of the Financial Services Committee, and then ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee said: “Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are not facing any kind of financial crisis,” and “The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.”
Other contributing factors are the result of President Carter’s Community Reinvestment Ac, which forced banks to lend to un-creditworthy borrowers and prohibited redlining. Banks were required not only to lend to un-creditworthy borrowers but were required to loan in blighted areas. Thus banks were forced to make loans that contradicted sound banking practices because they incurred significantly higher risks.
President Clinton disregarded warnings from congressional members and instead moved in the opposite direction by requiring lenders to make even more subprime loans. Failures to do so caused lenders to be subject to being closed by the federal government.
When sound business principles are violated either through mismanagement or government intervention the result will eventually be financial disaster.
So in the end, McCain’s advisor may have taken a job representing Fannie May and Freddie Mac, that’s what people who pay bills do. But it is abundantly clear the Democrat party created the environment that resulted in the bust. Started with Carter, advanced by Clinton, and any attempt to put boundaries on the problem were prevented by Democrat controlled congress.
Bill Clinton is on Good Morning America today admitting that the Democrats blocked reform of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. I will give Clinton credit for NOT LYING. In the midst of a whirlwind of lies fostered by the Obama camp (or do they just not know), Clinton stands apart, refusing to lie. Interesting. This could be staging for 2012.
Frank should be embarrassed to be involved in these bailout discussions. He helped cause this mess.
Even ten years ago, people were predicting this.
From the The New York Times
encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans.
increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people
In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980’s.
”From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,” said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ”If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.”
http://tinyurl.com/3jdn9e
“Fannie Mae” is English slang for a person’s bottom.
It’s amazing Barney Frank survived the Bulger’s brothers years only to fall prey to this kind of crap. At the same time McCain’s campaign director made millions as a lobbyist trying to prevent constraints on the faulty economics of this mortgage catastrophe which McCain attacked on the first news of this issue.
Sure seems to me that “by law” a GSE should not be allowed to contribute $ to a politician as it is indistinguishable from a bribe if not a conflict of interest? Same with all corporate contributions. No reason to give “free speech rights” to corporations.
Further, I am simply amazed at the Republicans in Congress actually acting as per their role under the Constitution==review and approval of Presidential Actions/requests/budget authority. Without good fiscally conservative Republicans finally having a spark of courage, this bailout would have been finished by now setting the stage for Bailout Horror Story.
I wish as a social liberal and a fiscal conservative, I wasn’t so alone.
#15 – Eddy
>>“Fannie Mae” is English slang for a
>>person’s bottom.
Uh, “fanny” is US slang for a person’s bottom. It’s UK slang for poontang, coochie, like that.
I’m also surprised by the Republicans’ stand here. It’s partly because they are in the minority so they don’t have to take responsibility for anything, plus the Democrats have no interest in doing this alone. If the economy falls, well that’s on Bush, not them.
“If the economy falls, well that’s on Bush, not them.”
And that’s the problem. Congress is too chickenshit to act because they don’t want the blame. Even though most of them reaped handsome profits from the jizzbags engaged in the shady lending. Democrats and Republicans alike were bought off.
Throw them all in jail.
Ron Paul FTW
Can anyone seriously look at Barney Frank and say to themselves, “Now there goes a man who has his act together!”
I’m a Democrat. Barney is a slob. Mentally and physically.
And none of my opinion of him comes from this story.
>>Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., a recipient of
>>more than $40,000 in campaign donations from
>>Fannie since 1989
FORTY THOUSAND DOLLARS IN 19 YEARS??? Haw! HAW! Is that a joke, a typo, what?
That’s $2105 per year. Forty bucks a week. He probably spends more than that on tips at Starbucks.
I’ll bet Dumbya spends more than that on gas for his brush-clearing chain saw! (Oh no, he gets the gas for free from President CHeney’s Secret Energy Cabal).
If this is a “scandal”, it’s not knocking my socks off.
If McBush’s campaign manager had been getting his $30K/month over that 19-year period, it would amount to $6,840,000.00. And FORTY THOUSAND DOLLARS is a scandal??
HAW!!
#22 – Buzz
>>Barney is a slob. Mentally and physically.
Come on. You know you want him. The jowls. The turkey wattle. The WC Fields nose. He’s everything you could want an more.
And with that extra $40/wk he’s pocketing, I’ll be he could show you a real good time!
i WONDER,
When it gets to “complected for the AVERAGE PERSON to understand” is it going the WRONG WAY.
Building a pyramid of WORDS and practices, and SO FORTH and the AVERAGE person cant follow the Logic or reasoning…ISNT it getting to complected?
In the end, it comes around to “WHOSE GOT THE MONEY”? when you cant point a finger, SOMETHING IS WRONG.
This post is about homophobia, not politics.
I think Barney Frank would prefer Freddie over Fannie.
#26 – Sane One
>>This post is about homophobia, not politics.
**BINGO!!!**
You hit that nail right on the head.
This has been brewing for decades. Everyone is at fault, Republicans, Democrats, Bush & Clinton. Each side blames it on the other exclusivley, bu notice no one is calling for an “investigation”. If it were really one-sided they’d already be having hearings. Truth is there won’t be any hearings because there’s no way to do it safely and just take the other guys down: they all go down.
This is all theater because in the end we’re all screwed.
Uh, maybe the media’s mum on the love connection because it ended TEN YEARS AGO, according to the article (eighth paragraph).
Come on, people.
#29: That’s actually what I’ve noticed as well.
Everybody had their fingers in this particular pie in one way or another. Unfortunately everybody’s so busy blaming each other I’m afraid that the legislature is about to give away the treasury. If that happens we really are screwed.
Everybody is pointing at various Presidents and saying they each had this contribution or tried to fix it in such a way, but it’s Congress that is really the actual acting body here. Presidents don’t legislate so even if they put the entire weight of Presidential authority behind a certain bill, if it gets passed it’s Congress that passed it. Yes, there’s always the possibility of veto, but that’s a pretty weak argument. It IS a lot easier to point a finger at one man than a group of people whose action requires some level of cooperation from people on “your side” though.
Mostly I’m sick of the “Democrats this” and “Republicans that” and REALLY would like to see a breakdown of a *_REALISTIC_* forecast of the effects of the bailout vs. not bailing out.
If, as I suspect, not bailing out results in a few investors losing a bunch of money they had invested in something that wasn’t as sound as they thought, I say let them rot.
If not bailing them out means that they have to foreclose on 1.4 trillion dollars in mortgages, we may have to bite the bullet. That seems awfully high, though. That would be over $4500 for every man, woman and child in the entire country.
They’ve already admitted that the $700 Billion is just a big number that was completely invented. You can’t just make up numbers and expect the government to give you that much money. At least, you *_SHOULDN’T_* be able to…