Barney Frank protests (and sputters and bullies) too much
Have you seen the video of a Harvard student challenging Barney Frank to take responsibility for his role in the subprime crisis?
His defensive bullying and sputtering and ranting about “right-wing attacks” speaks for itself.
So do the FOIA records that Judicial Watch obtained and released yesterday, which I linked yesterday. A reminder for Barney Frank (and ammunition for the next time a brave student wants to take him on again):
Judicial Watch obtained the documents from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request dated December 4, 2008. Judicial Watch requested records related to members of Congress activity regarding the policy of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to increase lending to individuals with poor credit risk, as well as correspondence and records about contacts between FHFA and Fannie and Freddie. Among the important documents:
FHFA letter, dated March 26, 2007, from the director of the Office of Housing Enterprise Oversight (OHFEO), James B. Lockhart, to U.S. Senators Elizabeth Dole, Chuck Hagel, Mel Martinez and John Sununu: “This is a very serious issue. Freddie Mac’s inadequate systems and controls make it a significant supervisory concern. Furthermore, its lack of timely public disclosures deny market participants the essential financial information made available by all other publicly traded companies so that investors may make informed judgments.” The letter also mentions, “…Fannie Mae still has not filed financial statements for 2005 and 2006 and thus, they are not timely filers either.”
FHFA letter, dated December 3, 2004, to Congressman Barney Frank: “On November 15, 2004 Fannie Mae filed a Form 12b-25 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Fannie Mae indicated that its external auditors could not complete their reviews of its financial statements and noted the possibility of up to a $9 billion loss dating back to 2001. As a result, OHFEO has determined it will not provide a monthly capital classification at this time.”
Letter dated June 16, 2006, from OHFEO Director Lockhart to Senator Chuck Hagel: “…In January 1999, Chairman and CEO Franklin Raines approved a recommendation made by the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) (Tom Howard) and the Controller (Leanne Spencer) to defer recognition of $200 million in amortization expense. This deferral, along with other accounting decisions made at that time relating to provisions for loan losses and the recognition of low-income housing tax credits, allowed management to meet the EPS threshold for maximum bonuses.”
Overall, these documents show that Congress was made aware of the massive problems at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over the last six years. Yet liberals, led by Congressman Barney Frank, repeatedly blocked attempts to rein in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.For example, during a hearing on September 10, 2003, before the House Committee on Financial Services considering a Bush administration proposal to further regulate Fannie and Freddie, Rep. Frank stated: “I want to begin by saying that I am glad to consider the legislation, but I do not think we are facing any kind of a crisis. That is, in my view, the two government sponsored enterprises we are talking about here, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are not in a crisis. We have recently had an accounting problem with Freddie Mac that has led to people being dismissed, as appears to be appropriate. I do not think at this point there is a problem with a threat to the Treasury.“
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I wonder if a relative of Frank’s was on the Titanic watching for icebergs!
“It’s only a flesh wound!” –Black Knight
Hmmm. “Barney Mac”? Sounds greasy to me.
http://evangelicalperspective.blogspot.com
I still wonder who started the myth that Frank is “intelligent.”
What is wrong with Massachusetts that they sent the corrupt and scandal prone Frank and the DWI Killer Kennedy back to DC every election?
Why yes, yes he did! It was an uncle, Lessthan Frank, who was a “deckhand”. His “job” was to rearrange the “deckchairs” and dance while the band played on in inclement weather.
(All due respect/reverence to survivors and victims of the real deal in 1912)
I wonder if that student has ever considered a (less profitable) career in journalism?
Nothing will happen to Barney Frank. Heck, a judge even overturned the conviction of Ted Stevens. One ship, one crew.
he is the pain in the butt of congress.
OT, but that was entirely justified. As guilty as Stevens may have been, we have procedural rights for a reason.
Hmmm…Barney Frank says, “I think labels are important”
I thought labels were bad for diversity.
Poster boy for term limits.
Please send this clown back to preschool so he can learn how to “play well with others.”
/OMG did I just say that???
The kid should have asked him why Frank stated that there was no Financial Crisis at Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae way back during 2003 when they were already starting to drown in $1.5 TRILLION in toxic bad debt, and why as chairman he and folks like Melvin L. Watt not only defended those 2 entities, they moved to block Bush administration attempt to regulate these bad loans to try to stop this disaster from happening, which, it eventually did.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ea8_1221606601
Details originally from the New York Times. I’m sure Barney would say that the times was a part of the vast right wing conspiracy to smear his good reputation by simply reporting the truth back in 2003.
If I were a Massachusetts voter, I’d be embarrassed.
Frank is one fool that should be in jail for enabling this crap, all in the name of “diversity” and his at-the-time boyfriend to keep making tons of money while working at Fannie Mae. Perfect, if you think about it, that his boyfriend was working for “Fannie”. Frank is the poster child for not allowing Massachusetts citizens to vote in the future.
Barney Frank: “I think labels are important.”
Yup.
He said it.
I’m sure the Pilgrims are turning in their graves, but Masschusetts liberals will lose no sleep over this.
Is it wrong for me to wish bawnee would get lock-jaw so he couldn’t talk for a few months?
L
Notice that all the old, white haired and bald people stuffing the front rows laughed with Frank at the student. Faculty no doubt. These are the people who keep electing Frank.
A second student even challenged him on labels. Loved it. There’s hope all right. When people their age realize what the bill will be for Frank’s Congressional votes, and his boyfriend’s mismanagement at Fannie or Freddie (I can never remember which is Fanny and which is Freddie) and the toxic ethics involved, things will change.
I find it funny how, in the exchange, Frank keeps pointing fingers at the Bush Treasury Department and the Right Wingers – yet in the same breath (right near the end of the video), admits that they came to congress and congress gave them permission to use money.
If he sees no responsibility in that – he’s truly out of touch and needs to go.
Why single out MA ? Look who was elected in the presidential election.
The kid should have asked him about his boyfriend who sat on the board of Fannie Mae.
Frank
Barney seems a little defensive.
I’ve had bigger scratches than that on my eye.” -my Dad.
Love how Frank called the student ‘disingenuous’–too bad hypocrisy isn’t painful.
I wish I could ask him a question or two.
He is just a piece of human garbage that ought to be rotting in a jail cell.
Wouldn’t it be nice if our pravda media did it’s real job?
“Oppressors can tyrannize only when they achieve a standing army, an enslaved press, and a disarmed populace.” — James Madison
One left.
Several times he used the phrase, “When I became chairman,” as if to imply that any other member of the Financial Services Committee is nothing but a powerless pawn of the chairman.
This clown personifies the term “crapweasel”.
love how that orthodox jew attending harvard is part of the vast right wing attack machine. why didn’t he ask him about his roll with setting up the fannie/freddie clinton let’s give diverse home loans to deadbeats law and his absolute lack of oversight on anything fannie or freddie (with the exception of course of freddie’s fannie.) HE OVERSEES THOSE REGULARLY.
Fly-over country did NOT vote for the Obammunist.
Tubby McToothless seems to be a little on edge when it comes to such things. Guilty conscience getting the better of him?
It won’t matter anymore. They’re lining up their ducks:
Control the census
‘Facilitate’ voter registration
‘Monitor’ the vote count
Legislate away the Electoral College
Can you say ‘Obfuscation’?
I hate to use the term ‘CYA’ when Barney’s involved, but what a crock.
(Rhetorical Question): Does he, and B. Hussein, The Pelosi, Grungy Harry et al live in an alternate universe?
Barney Fudge, will you please just LEAVE THIS PLANET, NOW?! It will raise the earth’s collective IQ immeasurably!
Frank: “Right! I’ll do you for that!”
Hemorrhoid?
Lest we forget and to remind liberals, Bush tried to reign in this mess in 2003 and the Dems shot him down and accused him and his cabinet of being prejudice.
OOPS – sorry.
Bush amdin srarted in April 2001
2003 the crisis was upgraded to systemic.
President Bush first brought this subject up as a concern in 2001.
I certainly don’t want to be put in the position of defending Frank, who is, in my opinion, one of the chief villains in the subprime crisis. However, I also think that the crisis evolved over a period of years going back to the 90′s, and I can’t help but reflect on the fact that for a substantial portion of that period, Republicans controlled both congress and the White House. Surely Bush and Republicans in congess are guilty as well.
Libs aren’t required to take responsibility for their actions. It’s a foreign concept.
……………or…………………
There’s nothing to apologize for because things are going exactly according to plan: Destroy the economy to create generations of victims dependent on the government teat.
He may have brought it up, but nothing was done about it despite the fact that from 2003 thru 2007 Republicans controlled both Houses of congress.
Bob1234: You’re correct. There is more than enough blame of both Republicans and Demoncrats to go around. However, it seems as though the Demoncrats viewed this mess as an opportunity to really slam-dunk the Bush administration by knowing it would blow up on Pres Bush’s watch. The demoncrats honestly believe Obama can fix it somehow. I remember a time when I actually thought people elected to public office were intelligent. I have long since come into the light. It will be a long hard fight to ever get term limits on all these crooks!
Sorry Soap. Slow refresh. I’m on a laptop today.
Funny, Slate was just referring to Bawney Fwank as:
Bawney must ask himself an awful lot of questions.
Did you hear Dennis Miller on O’reilly about Barney Frank and Jail ? Very funny.
There. Fixed it for ya.
(although the original statement was accurate in more ways than one)
Ummm, he still didn’t answer the gentleman’s question…. you all still remember don’t you?
That’s not all he wouldn’t be able to do…
too easy.
I kept screaming at my computer, “Answer the @#$% question and quit dancing around it!”
I love the new way that politicians handle their constituents: try to make them a laughing stock for asking a simple question because you know the truthful answer will burn you. What a piece of crap.
As much as I think Barney deserves his prison term for his role in Fannie and Freddie, the real criminal is Alan Greenspan. He controlled the money and poured it into mortgages faster than you could say Communist China.
Look for that student to get Joe-the-Plumber-ed. How dare he question one of the ruling class?!
Patronedheart
Yes, he is a piece of crap…. but we have a duty to keep these pieces of garbage’s feet to the fire at every chance we get.
Child’s Play…asking the questions the MSM will not and being bullied by someone who will take no responsibility. A crank…how’s that for a label?
Naw, too principled.
That pant-load of feed-lot carpet spewed by Frank-lover ranks right up there with Dodd’s “explanation” of why he lied about the “special” AIG provisions he wrote into the Porkulus “law”.
The way it works is this…you put people listening to sleep with a long, hyper-technical explanation of what you did that OBSCURES…rather than answers…the original question to the point where anyone listening is utterly unable to recall the question.
With what we laughingly/weepingly call the “press” as currently comprised…
it works wonderfully.
If he had stopped talking right there, it would have been the most correct and accurate words he ever spoke.
Butt he likes it, or so the story goes. And, yes, I meant it with two “t”‘s.
Shouldn’t that have been…
Butt? He likes it…!!!
Just saying…
Those a&&es on the left will always do that – “what would you do?”
Right there, when they do that, shows their lack of care for the voting public.
I never stop wondering how arrogant, drooling cretins like Frank, who wouldn’t understand responsibility if you drew it out for him in crayon, seize and maintain their grasp on the levers of power.
GothamThe U.S. needs a better class ofcriminalCongressman.Except for a few guys that didnt want to pay increased taxes back to England, if it were up to Massachusetts we would all still be British subjects.
So when a Tsumani is on its way to wash over you, when are you actually in trouble?
) when the wave is on it way
) when the shoreline recedes to the horizon while the water is sucked out to sea
) when you can see the wave above you
) when your tumbling in the washing machine that you will never escape from
Barneys just the lifeguard on the beach who yells to everyone to chase the shoreline
The question was about the financial crisis. The student asked about TARP and AIG. Frank wanted to defend against ‘subprime loan’ crisis.
Frank was INDEED responsible for the subprime loan crisis because they forced banks to lend to risky consumers based on ‘fairness’. They made a law to make denying people loans discriminatory and racist.
Again, that wasn’t the question from the student, but Frank’s answer was concerning the ‘subprime crisis’ which he DID have DIRECT involvement with. If banks were allowed to underwrite their own business without threat of ‘discrimination’ there would not have been a subprime crisis.
Sorry Michelle, I could only watch about 2:30 minutes of that slobbering corrupt bastard. As others in the democrap circle of power have said before, “guilty as hell, free as a bird”.
But I’m a firm believer that every dog has his day. The corrupt Mr. Frank will have his day sooner or later.
So, when does Mr Blowhard Barney sponsor the bill needed to plug back in the CRA regulations that Clinton was responsible for killing and Barney used bald face lies, fraud and the race card to keep in place, that started the cascade effect to put America on the slippery slope to G21 status.
Doesn’t say a whole lot about the electorate does it…or maybe it says a whole lot.
I’m sure they are also pissed that they have filed to indoctrinate all their students and a few slipped away.
His parents were probably married as well…
I see that FEMA is recalling their trailers from the Katrina disaster. How come Bawney is not making a fuss about keeping that affordable housing? After 4 years, the accomodations seem rather permanent. Probably couldn’t get Fannie and Freddie to bundle any mortgages on them.
and how, one asks, did he do THAT??? How did he pour $$ into mortgages?
Dozens of Barney’s “friends” would go into mourning if you did.
Let me see if I understand this correctly:
A student asks Barney “I Like Smooth Young Hairless Boys” (remember kids, labels are important) Frank a.k.a. Elmer Fudd, a question, and is accused of attacking him.
Same student persists, requests Barney “I.L.S.Y.H.B” Frank to please just answer the question he had posed to him, Frank then accuses him of being “disingenuous”.
Frank then goes into some long self-stroking/CYA litany, interrupted several times by an audience member and the student to just answer the question, and still never answers.
Yet he was still able to blame both President Bush, along with the Republicans who had been out of power for two years.
Should we not be looking to Rome and other theologians to look into the miracles that have been committed since 2006? After all, look at all the destruction the Republicans have been able to do without even being in power for more than two years.
And why are the Democrats and Liberals being allowed to get away with all of that? Under Bush and the Republicans we had record breaking unemployment, Wall Street had recovered fully from the crash after 9-11 and also sat in record breaking territory for a long time…until after the Dems took over, there was record broken after record in the economy, and the Dems and Liberals were allowed to continually tell the public that the economy was a disaster, that we were in a recession etc., etc., etc., yet it does not take a genius to go back and see that the recession and the destruction of the economy took place AFTER the Dems took over, and largely as a result of what the Dems themselves did. Yet they STILL are being allowed to constantly blame the Republicans.
Now, I am NOT a Republican anymore. They left me a long time ago, and after watching and having to take all that they have been doing for quite some time now, I do not forsee becoming one again any time soon. However, the truth is the truth, and if the Republicans have any hope at all of ever taking back the Congress and Senate, they need to capitalize on what is going on, fight Obama and the Socialists/Marxists OPENLY…outloud, DAILY at every chance they can get, along with using every chance they have to make sure the public knows that all of these things took place AFTER the Dems took over, and stop being such panty-waists.
Conservatives need to find a Reagan Republican and make that person their spokesman. They need to put that person out in the press as often as humanly possible and get these Marxists/Socialists to expose themselves openly and hammer on them hourly if necessary until the public realizes what it is they are doing to this country and what the consequenses of what Obama and the Dems is, what the reality of their programs and policies truly is.
What Obama and the Democrats are trying and, so far, succeeding in doing is nothing new. It has been done in other countries since 1917, and has never worked. Not only has it been a constant failure, but it has also cost the lives of over 100 MILLION people. It will not work here, no matter how many lies they tell, or how pretty of a package they wrap it up in.
some rumpswab said:
Oh yeah? Can you tell us the years/months/unemployment levels?
Fact is, for half of Bush’s terms we had the lowest unemployment in history.
Yer a frackin jerk, sir.
…unless you mean “record breakingly LOW levels of unemployment…
I’d say “my bad”, but it was your wording.
To paraphrase Robert Preston:
There’s nothing more inconvenient than an old queen with a committee.
Why must the people of Boston saddle the rest of the country with their endless parade of human debris in the guise of politicians? Why do we allow it? If you thought John Kerry was a pathetic waste of chromosomes just keep an eye on Barney Frank. This jerk was “sleeping” with board members of Fannie Mae while serving on the banking committee and no one has taken him out and beaten a resignation out of him?
There is no justice.
Is that not the exact thing that I said?
Record breaking unemployment was meant to be LOWEST. It should have been self-explainatory given what I was talking about.
And yeah…YOUR bad. I’ll ignore the “jerk” comment.
I think the student should have been more specific in his question. He left an open ended question for Franks to squirm out of.
He should have asked why in both 2003 & 2005 Franks voted againt any GW legislation on the sub-prime mortgages. aAnd why he stated on CNBC everything was fine with Fannie/Freddie
Liberal lightweights, like Barney Frank, are incapable of exchanging intellectual arguments with conservatives…or any other intelligent beings.
Let’s give Barney a break here. Show some sympathy for a guy with an addiction. He is addicted to both ‘crack’ and ‘crank’, if you know what I mean.
So, a student, using his constitutional right to free speech, and having been called upon to ask Bawney a question, asks a fair and legitimate question. Am I right so far? Then Bawney jumps all over the student (um, don’t take that wrong) and accuses the student of being disingenuous. When the student reminds Bawney that he was a “public servant”, that set Bawney off into a frenzy of bullying and “rightous indignation”, castigating the student who dared to ask this “Chairman of a committee” a question that Bawney had to, once again, lie and weasel his way out of. In addition, the crapweasels who are disguised as “instructors” are laughing at the student. Has that student hired a lawyer and a bodyguard yet? I pray he is current with any owed taxes. Will his college tuition become due and payable this week? Did he find a horse head in his bed the next morning? Will those instructors give him failing grades now? I’m not kidding. That kid is in trouble…and so is this country. We need to make note of that student’s name and follow this closely to find out if there were any reprecussions. He needs our support, just like Joe the Plumber did. My fervent, most desired prayer is that Barney Frank goes down, hard (again, don’t take that the wrong way.) I think I loathe him even more than Schuemer, Reid and Obama combined.
There is no way to win with Barney Frank. If he were ever found guilty of anything and given prison time he would merely squeal with delight at being sent somewhere his many talents would be appreciated.
The lady doth protest too much, methinks.