The media doesn’t want to talk about Fannie and Freddie:
Do you know how much we’ve committed to backstopping Fannie and its partner-in-crime Freddie Mac (FRE)? $400 BILLION! Back in February that was doubled from the original $200 billion.
But the news of the quarterly loss is getting hardly any attention. Nothing here at the NYT business section, for example. Nothing at the blogs that were going nuts when AIG was revealed to have paid out bonuses back in March.
The problem is that the Fannie and Freddie disasters don’t fit into any conventional media narrative. At AIG you had Joe Cassano, lurking in the shadows, turning AIGFP into his own personal casino, while taking home gargantuan pay.
Fannie Mae? They help nice families get into homes. Their motto is something about helping the people who help house America. Who could be against that? Plus, the Fannie and Freddy story doesn’t help explain the idea that laissez-faire deregulation is what allowed Wall Street to go crazy. Fannie and Freddy had their own freakin’ regulator, OFHEO. Two companies with one regulator to look into both of them.
And then you have all the Democrats on the inside (Rahm Emanuel, for example) on the outside (Barney Frank), who have ties to the company’s worst years.
Yes, inconvenient, that.
“And then you have all the Democrats on the inside (Rahm Emanuel, for example) on the outside (Barney Frank), who have ties to the company’s worst years.”
Lots of republican’s too.
OH Jack, Jack, JACK. Barney and Chrissy were the ones touting the solvencey of these two. They were the ones stopping attempts to reign them in. Look at where the bonuses went. Franklin Raines, Jamie Gorelick. Look who received the most donations. The top 3 are Democrats. Obama is #2. DEMOCRATS ALL. They own it.
Or it owns them…
You say that like it proves something.
Barney Frank is an idiot. No doubt, but, in 2005, he was in the minority party. The House voted out a bill on fannie mae changes, so, barney had no impact there. The SENATE
which in 2005 was run 55 GOP, did not vote the Fannie Mae bill out.
If you have a complaint there, take it up with Bill Frist.
Barney was grandstanding and taking cheap shots. Minority house members do that, it’s free.
As you may have noticed, many of us here complain about how easy it is to stampede and steamroll the Republicans. Especially when they’re in the majority.
“Barney was grandstanding and taking cheap shots. Minority house members do that, it’s free.”
What’s his excuse now?
“The SENATE
which in 2005 was run 55 GOP, did not vote the Fannie Mae bill out.”
That’s still 5 short of 60 for cloture.
“The SENATE
which in 2005 was run 55 GOP, did not vote the Fannie Mae bill out.”
That’s still 5 short of 60 for cloture.”
Well if Bill Frist and George Bush don’t know how to get a cloture vote with 55 votes, don’t blame me for their incompetency.
LBJ used to get cloture votes with the defection of every Southern Democrat when he wanted to vote for Civil Rights bills.
> LBJ used to get cloture votes with the defection of every Southern Democrat when he wanted to vote for Civil Rights bills.
Yup – he got Repubs.
Dems, the party of Jim Crow and Segregation.
Well if Bill Frist doesn’t know how to get 5 dems to support a cloture vote he isn’t much of a majority leader.
Howard Baker always knew how to do that.
And go ahead sell that canard about Jim Crow. Perhaps you could even explain why now the GOP is only dominant in the Confederate states.
Well if Bill Frist doesn’t know how to get 5 dems to support a cloture vote he isn’t much of a majority leader.
You’re blaming Bill Frist for hyperpartisan Democrats?
Perhaps you could even explain why now the GOP is only dominant in the Confederate states.
Why would we explain something that isn’t true? Only a moron like you would do that.
When segregation and institutionalized racism was it’s worst in the south, it was completely and solely the Democrats who ran things. George Wallace (Democrat). Lestor Maddox (Democrat). Bull Conner (Democrat). The list of shame goes on an on. It was men like Bill Clinton’s mentor (William Fullbright) and Al Gore’s father (both Democrats) who voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1963. Without the support of Republicans, that legislation would never have passed.