This Time - It Is That Simple

A frustrated Thomas Sowell inquired this morning, "Do facts matter any more?". Indeed they do, yet they require explanation, to be made simple, in little bites so the masses may digest leisurely and at their own pace. Surely the McCain campaign understands that facts matter yet it is about to squander that very key fact, one which is undeniable, not in shades, but black from white and upon which the fate of the election rests - the role of liberal Democrats as the agent of the current crisis. This is not judgement; it is a fact. For those liberal friends of ours who nonstop whine about their 401K, their house price and are in search of the villain - they need only look to their own party. This time - it is that simple.

From early Sep we have highlighted the complicity of Fannie/Freddie and the Democrats, how those agencies became a cash cow for Barney Frank, Dodd, Clinton, Obama and others. It was liberal Democrats led by Dodd and Frank who for years, even this year, denied that the twins were taking outsized risks. It was liberal Democrats who for years push the twins for go further and further into sub-primes, into poorer and poorer neighborhoods. It was the same bunch who for years refused requests from the Bush adm to set up an agency to regulate Fan/Fre, the same bunch who defeated S-190, the bill co-authored by McCain which carried major reform and would have prevented this very crisis. If that bill would have become law, today’s world would be different. That such a reckless stand could have been taken by one party is obscene, unforgivable. The Democrats who opposed portfolio limitations could not possibly have gotten away with it if their constituents understood what they were doing. But then Obama, Clinton, Dodd and others of the left received mind-boggling amounts of $ support from the twins, the twins’ private profit finding its way back to the left, who then killed the fix.

We have already demonstrated that it was the gov’t that pressured banks and others to lend to poor credits through the CRA, coupled with threats of legal action from Janet Reno if they did not. And it was the gov’t, not free enterprise, that encouraged the twins to go along. It was Fan/Fre which played THE key role in the creation of sub-primes AND, through their incestuous relationship with wall st, the sub-prime mortgage-backed securities themselves. For the left, this was win / win: by pressuring banks to serve poor borrowers in poor regions Frank and Dodd and others could go on record pushing for an increase in home ownership and urban development, and by working with the twins, encouraging them to take more risk, they effectively could subsidize low income housing off budget. Off budget that is, until just a few days ago.

Robert Craven