Barney Frank has been in a "scandal" involving his homosexual lovers before. Barney Frank is the Democrat chairman of the House Banking Committee who played a major role in blocking reform legislation on Fannie Mae all of these years (since the 1990's, when even Bill Clinton was trying to obtain more oversight over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, even though Clinton Administration people were a major force in the expansion of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into ever more risky loans--with Clinton Administration official and Obama crony Franklin Raines becoming CEO of Fannie Mae and inflating his own compensation with questionable loans and accounting).
It turns out that Barney Frank had a homosexual lover who was an official of Fannie Mae for a good part of teh 1990's, when Frank was one of the main House members (since his committee was responsible for "oversight" legislation of financial institutions).
What would happen if this were a Republican, like Larry Craign? You know. There would be a major scandal. In fact, if a Republican hand been involved in any heterosexual relationships as questionable as some of the homosexual relationships of Barney Frank, there would have been several major scandals. However, Frank is a Democrat homosexual, which makes him off limits to mainstream media attack, even when his actions have resulted, as much as any person, in the present mortgage crisis.
Now Frank has said that he can't be blamed while Republicans controlled the House, because Democrats could not block legislation in the House that the Republicans wanted to pass. Not true. Barney Frank explained why that is not true himself, in some of the same interviews when he defended himself on the Wall Street bailout bill.
Democrats now control the House. Republicans could not stop the Wall Street bailout bill if Democrats wanted to pass it. Frank was asked why Democrats on his own committee--enough to pass the bill--voted to reject the bill supported by the Democratic leadership last Monday. Frank's answer, at the same time he was saying Republicans could pass any bill they wanted on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? "I don't control the Democrats on my committee. They have their own minds." His answer as to why Democrats could not pass the Wall Street bailout bill themselves was that Democrats were unwilling to take the political heat without Republican participation. He probably also said, in some interviews, that you could not expect all Democrats to think the same on the bill, even though the leadership endorsed it.
It takes an industrial strength hypocrite to take opposite positions in the same interview. Barney Frank managed it, because he is such a hypocrite. He simultaneously said that the Democrats could not be responsible for failing to pass the Wall Street bailout bill, even though in the majority, while Republicans were totally responsible for passing reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, over heavy Democrat opposition (joined by, of course, some Republicans and blocked by Democrats like Chris Dodd in the Senate, as well). You just can't get any more hypocritical than that.
Barney Frank is "on tape" saying the there was nothing wrong with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, all of the way up to 2003 to 2005, and perhaps beyond that. That included in the 1990's, when he had a homosexual lover who was an official of Fannie Mae. Barney Frank, in the House, and Democrat Chris Dodd, in the Senate (where a minority can block action on bills), were more responsible than any other people to block reform and strict "oversight" of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. John McCain, of course, warned of the financial crisis that would result if the bill he co-sponsored, in 2005 (Federal Housing Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, or some such name--correct name in previous entry in this blog), failed to pass. That bill was blocked by Democrats in the Senate, such as Chris Dodd, along with some Republicans. The bill would have provided for a "regulator" with strong powers to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Barney Frank makes a point of saying that his committee, and the Congress, passed watered down regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2007, shortly after he became chairman of the committee (after Democrats gained control in the 2006 elections). However, his was obvious "too little, too late". How do we know that? We know that because Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac totally failed, and were takken over by the Federal Government, a year later.
To almost the very end, Barney Frank, and the Democrats in Congress, were saying that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were there to make sure that there was "affordable housing" for almost everyone, The Democrats rejected criticism of the accounting of Franklin Raines (forced to resign in 2005l), and generally protected Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to the bitter end (the bitter end being the present mortgage/housing/credit crisis.
In the meantime Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were making major campaign contributions, through their empolyees, primarily to Democrats. This included Chris Dodd (no. 1), and Barack Obama (no. 2, over eight years, even though he has only been in the Senate for 3). Obama was also the second biggest recipient of contributions from recently bankrupt Lehman Brothers. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as many of these Wall Street firms that have gotten in trouble, were clearly controlled by Democrats at the time of their questionable practices. They were further protected by Democrats. Obama, for example, failed to support McCain's "oversight" bill for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2005.
Then there was Chirs Dodd, now chairman of the Senate committee overseeing Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the mortgage industry, who was the ranking Democrat on the Senate committee while the crisis was building. In such capacity, because of Senate rules favoring minority ability to block bills, he had almost complete power to block bills. What do we know about Chris Dodd. We know he got "sweetheart" mortgages from Countrywide Mortgage--a mortgage company that would eventually go under (have to be bought out by Bank of America) because of bad loans. Dodd got better terms from Countrywide than the average person could get. He has said he thought the loans were merely a matter of "courtesy", and not for any quuid pro quo. Uh-huh.
From Barney Frank's homosexual lover to Chris Dodd's sweetheart loans to consistent promotion of "easy" mortgages through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac--all the time protecting them from more regulatioin--Democrats have their fingerprints all over the mortgage crisis. It is not that Republicans never did anything wrong, but it is Republicans that were trying to get more oversight for mortgages issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which might have averted this financial crisis. In any event, Democrats seem to have exercised almost full control of Fannie Mae during the crucial years, and to have protected both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
This is more a Democrat scandal than a Republican one.
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