Quote:
Originally Posted by scottw
BS !
Sowell again setting the record straight on Frank today...
"When federal regulators uncovered irregularities in Fannie Mae’s accounting, and in 2004 issued what Barron’s magazine called “a blistering 211-page report,” Barney Frank lashed out — not at Fannie Mae, but at the regulators who uncovered Fannie Mae’s misdeeds. He said “a leadership change” in the regulatory agency was “overdue.”
Politicians who say we need more regulation almost never mean regulation in the sense of impartially enforcing explicit rules, such as the accounting rules that Fannie Mae was violating to cover up its own risks. They mean regulation with arbitrary powers, such as those under the Community Reinvestment Act, which enable regulators to carry out the agendas that politicians give them.
When Congressman Jim Leach tried to get stronger regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac back in 1992, and when President George W. Bush did so in 2004, Barney Frank opposed them.
A reining in of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be a reining in of Barney Frank’s power. But he can’t stop the voters from reining in his power, unless he can once more get by this election year with pious rhetoric to conceal his cynical actions."
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Sowell is making a one sided argument that ignores the positive measures Frank has supported, positive measures that Republicans have blocked, the negative measures that Republicans have supported, as well as the remarks Frank has made on why he did certain things when he did. To take a quote from 2004 (I thought it really from 2003) out of this context is intellectually dishonest and Sowell knows better, hell he's written at length on that exact subject.
The GOP has worked tirelessly to make Frank the face of the Recession in an effort to shoot down a very smart and influential liberal. I guess expecting some objectivity is a bit unreasonable as it would undermine this objective.
And so politics go...
-spence