Speaking of Fwank, what was the name of the guy he was… ah… well, dating that worked at FM/FM? Anybody know?

CC

CapedConservative on October 2, 2008 at 12:24 PM

Herb Moses. I know him. Lives in southern California now.

rockmom on October 2, 2008 at 12:40 PM

Ed –

I am hitting the blogs today begging someone to start asking some questions about Paul Sarbanes’ role in all this. He is the real cuplrit in my view. Here is an article that desribes what happened as Sen. Shelby attempted to pass a tough GSE reform bill in 2004, after the Freddie and Fannie accounting scandals:

WASHINGTON (4/1/04)–Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.) is preparing a version of the government sponsored enterprise (GSE) bill to rival the one unveiled last week by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) (American Banker March 31).

Sarbanes is the lead Democrat on the committee, which brings the possibility that Banking Committee support could break down along party lines when the GSE measure comes before the committee for a vote today, said the American Banker.

The article indicates the Sarbanes version differs from Sen. Shelby’s legislation in the following ways:

–The proposed new regulator of the housing GSEs could not put them into receivership in a financial crisis;

–There would be a governing board for the new GSE regulatory agency and therefore a weaker executive director than contemplated in the Shelby bill;

–The Sarbanes and Shelby approaches have different capital provisions.

A spokesperson for Sen. Sarbanes’ office declined to confirm or deny the report. However, in a statement issued Tuesday, Sarbanes said, “I have a number of concerns with the proposed Committee Print. The focus needs to be on having a first class regulator. In doing so, we must be careful not to diminish the housing mission or run the risk of upsetting the housing finance system, which has served the nation so well.”

Before any legislation was made public, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, the National Association of Homebuilders and the Independent Community Bankers of America said they would object to any measure including a receivership provision that could increase the cost of debt to GSEs.

Sen. Shelby’s plan would allow the agency to close a GSE if it were critically undercapitalized and in danger of default with no reasonable chance to replenish its resources. It would contain a bridge provision to allow the regulator to run an enterprise for up to two years if necessary, with the possibility of three one-year extensions not to exceed five years.

News accounts said last week that Standard & Poor’s hinted about a possible downgrade of GSE debt if a new regulator had receivership powers, but Moody’s this week disagreed. American Banker noted that Moody’s did not see the receivership provision as signaling a break with the GSEs’ implied government guarantee.

According to American Banker, observers believe Sen. Sarbanes has the backing of most Democrats on the banking panel and is working to target Republican members who might be sympathetic to the GSEs. There are 10 Democrats on the committee and 11 Republicans.

http://www.cuna.org/newsnow/archive/list.php?date=033104

When Shelby brought up his bill, it passed on a party line vote orchestrated by Sarbanes. Therefore, Shelby knew he could not get 60 votes for it and never tried to bring it to the floor of the Senate.

The bill that finally passed via Barney Frank in 2007 was a much weaker version of this bill, and added a 5% ACORN slush fund which Republicans opposed. And even that bill was only passed this summer because the White House threatened to veto the housing foreclosure bill unless it was added.

Democrats have all the blood on their hands here. But much of it belongs to Paul Sarbanes. Why he has not even been interviewed by any news outlet is a complete mystery to me.

rockmom on October 2, 2008 at 12:50 PM

Michael Graham has been all over this in the Boston Herald. Jeff Jacoby even had a column on it in the Globe. I guess the people in Frank’s district just have their fingers in their ears, singing la-la-la-la. They have the information.

The Hartford Courant had a blistering editorial earlier this week

rockmom on October 2, 2008 at 1:34 PM

The ACORN stuff is really awful and scary. It seems to be a fund that tax payers pay into involuntarily to keep the criminals among the Democrats in charge of our government. How can something like that not be illegal.

petunia on October 2, 2008 at 1:39 PM

It’s moot now because Fannie and Freddie are now owned by the government, but this legislation for the first time forced a private corporation to fork over a predetermined amount of its profits for a public purpose. Republicans argued that it was unconstitutional, but Democrats came back and said these are government chartered companies and we can make them do and fund whatever we want. They are really pissed now that the government can refuse to fund this slush fund. That’s why they tried to get it into the bailout bill.

rockmom on October 2, 2008 at 1:46 PM

Barney’s ace in the hole is that he is glib and the media love him. He is always good for a quote and he is always accessible. He seems sincere and lovable, so nobody wants to believe anything bad about him. He has a “plausible” argument that the lazy media who like him anyway are more than happy to parrot and not dig into. He played Anderson Cooper like a fiddle last night, and Cooper really was pressing him on his culpability about Fannie Mae. I guarantee you will not see any other Democrats making any statements about Fannie Mae.

rockmom on October 2, 2008 at 1:49 PM