Posted by
Mike Bates on Thursday, September 25, 2008 5:05:55 PM
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank appeared as a guest on the September 24
"Lou Dobbs Tonight".
Just minutes before interviewing the Massachusetts Democrat, Dobbs
featured a report from CNN correspondent Louise Schiavone on political
contributions made by mortgage financiers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Schiavone stated Frank has received more than $42,000. His party's
standard bearer, Barack Obama, has gotten over $126,000.
Yet Dobbs didn't even question Frank about taking those
contributions from two of the major institutions involved in the
present financial crisis. Or perhaps he could have asked Frank about
what he told the New York Times in 2003:
"These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac --
are not facing any kind of financial crisis,'' said Representative
Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial
Services Committee. ''The more people exaggerate these problems, the
more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in
terms of affordable housing.''
Moreover, he could have asked Frank if his relationship with the
former director of housing initiatives for Fannie Mae, a man Barney considered his lover, had anything to do with the congressman's view that everything was hunky-dory over there.
Dobbs could have inquired what specific oversight Frank, who has
been either the ranking Democrat or the chairman of the financial
services committee for several years, and his committee had exercised
over financial institutions. According to its Web site, Frank's
committee "oversees
all components of the nation's housing and financial services sectors
including banking, insurance, real estate, public and assisted housing,
and securities." How's that working out for you, Barney?
Rather than getting some substantive responses from Frank, Dobbs was
satisfied with asking process questions about how the bailout package
is developing. He also gave Frank a platform to parrot a few Democratic
talking points:
DOBBS: What you're basically talking about, the
Republicans are going to get this administration is going to get a
bailout of Wall Street. The Democrats are going to get a new deal. And
the result is going to be what? A nationalized --
FRANK: No. Nothing nationalized. The ownership we're going to take
is going to have no voting rights. I don't think it's Wall Street --
here is the problem, a lack of regulation going back to Ronald Reagan
allowed the private sector to make the mistakes that put us in this
situation.
DOBBS: May I point out that the President Jimmy Carter is the one
who started deregulation in 1978. The partisan thing doesn't work for
me.
FRANK: I'm not being partisan. If you'd stop interrupting me -- he
never said it was the problem. He never said government is dumb and
markets are smart. I'm sorry, Lou. We're not going to have a serious
conversation. Jimmy Carter is very different from Ronald Reagan. He
moved for regulations in two specific industries, but we're talking
about not about whether or not you lack regulation or if you have no
regulation. And Carter never regulated the financial markets.
All in all, a pretty disappointing performance from Dobbs. Is he
worried Barney and friends won't appear on his program if he questions
why they've ignored, or in some instances aggravated, the problems
leading to the current financial mess?