Barney Frank Seeks Antidote To Republican Amnesia

Or such is the title of the letter just sent out by the House Committee on Financial Services in which the Democrat-GOP squabbles take on a new and heated flair, compliments of Barney. Seems the purpose for the letter is borne out of criticisms of Frank that he personally did not pass any legislation to regulate Fannie and Freddie until 2007, his claims in 2003 that FNM and FRE were not in crisis, and his lack of attempts to restrict subprime lending between 1994 and 2007. At first read, the extremely defensive letter (below) would be admissible material for a late night comedy show, with such pearls as:

“Being accused of having blocked legislation to prohibit irresponsible lending to low-income people from 1995 to 2006 is flattering in a bizarre way,” Frank noted. "Apparently those Republicans parroting these right-wing talking points believe that I had some heretofore undisclosed power over first Newt Gingrich and then Tom DeLay, which allowed me to keep them from passing legislation they wanted to pass. If that had been true, I would have used that power to block the impeachment of Bill Clinton in the House, the war in Iraq, large tax cuts for the very wealthy, the intrusion into the sad case of Terri Schiavo, and appropriations bills that badly underfunded important social priorities.

While the market is on a roll and seems poised to break to break a 20% upswing in one week, partisan wrangling of this kind usually leads to very adverse consequences in the form of bear markets, crushed economy, broker taxpayer and heated Chelsea arguments.

Anyway, we definitely recommend reading the letter by BF, if no other reason than for the hilarity that ensues.

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