Barney Frank Sadly Wrong About Racism Charge

Don't it make my blue state bluer.....

Sorry, Barney Frank; you are just plain wrong.

U.S. Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) is on an extended rant, doing all he can to dismiss any level of blame for the current financial crisis from himself and his politics.

Like a good Liberal, Frank is quick to call the Republicans racist for criticizing the low-income lending that helped cause the financial collapse.

"They get to take things out on poor people," said the intrepid representative from tony Newton, MA. "The fact that some of the poor people are black doesn't hurt them either..."

Frank sticks his foot further into his mouth by calling claims that low-income loans helped cause the Wall Street meltdown "bizarre."

It is truly sad when a politician is so blinded by his own prejudices and his own agenda that he cannot or will not see the root of a problem.

This has nothing to do with race, and everything to do with banks being forced to lend money to people who could not afford the loan to satisfy the legal requirements placed on them by politicians.

Why in the world would a bank loan money to someone who could not afford the loan, unless there was some external pressure and/or a guarantee that the loan would be backed by someone else? Unlike the U.S. government, banks are in the business to earn money, not give it away.

He continues his partisan blathering by claiming that Republican's made no attempt at reforms that could have prevented the meltdown, ignoring efforts in 2005 by Senators Chuck Hagel (R-NE), John McCain (R-AZ), Elizabeth Dole (R-NC), and John Sununu (R-NH) to reform Fannie and Freddie. And, he conveniently neglects to mention that it was the Democrat-controlled Senate that refused to allow this bill to come to a vote.

He declines to mention his own resistance to a President Bush plan in 2003 to provide new oversight over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, fearing that "we will see (less) in terms of affordable housing."

But, not surprisingly, Frank has a vested interest in seeing these agencies absolved of blame and further regulation, having received "more than $40,000 in campaign donations from Fannie since 1989." Further, he may have had a serious conflict-of-interest, stemming from reportedly having a close personal relationship with a Fannie Mae executive at the time.

"The guys on Wall Street," preached Frank, "if they never earned another nickel, would live better than they have any right to live."

I find it pretty frightening when an elected official decides he should be the determinant of how people "have any right to live."

We are living in scary times, indeed.