As Ace said, “On the plus side, we’re not the only ones this executive has been [deleted because you saw this joke coming six miles beyond the actual horizon, and I refuse to do the cheap stuff.].”
Unqualified home buyers were not the only ones who benefitted from Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank’s efforts to deregulate Fannie Mae throughout the 1990s.So did Frank’s partner, a Fannie Mae executive at the forefront of the agency’s push to relax lending restrictions.
Now that Fannie Mae is at the epicenter of a financial meltdown that threatens the U.S. economy, some are raising new questions about Frank’s relationship with Herb Moses, who was Fannie’s assistant director for product initiatives. Moses worked at the government-sponsored enterprise from 1991 to 1998, while Frank was on the House Banking Committee, which had jurisdiction over Fannie.
Both Frank and Moses assured the Wall Street Journal in 1992 that they took pains to avoid any conflicts of interest. Critics, however, remain skeptical.
“It’s absolutely a conflict,” said Dan Gainor, vice president of the Business & Media Institute. “He was voting on Fannie Mae at a time when he was involved with a Fannie Mae executive. How is that not germane?
“If this had been his ex-wife and he was Republican, I would bet every penny I have – or at least what’s not in the stock market – that this would be considered germane,” added Gainor, a T. Boone Pickens Fellow. “But everybody wants to avoid it because he’s gay. It’s the quintessential double standard.”
A top GOP House aide agreed.
“C’mon, he writes housing and banking laws and his boyfriend is a top exec at a firm that stands to gain from those laws?” the aide told FOX News. “No media ever takes note? Imagine what would happen if Frank’s political affiliation was R instead of D? Imagine what the media would say if [GOP former] Chairman [Mike] Oxley’s wife or [GOP presidential nominee John] McCain’s wife was a top exec at Fannie for a decade while they wrote the nation’s housing and banking laws.”
Frank’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Frank met Moses in 1987, the same year he became the first openly gay member of Congress.
“I am the only member of the congressional gay spouse caucus,” Moses wrote in the Washington Post in 1991. “On Capitol Hill, Barney always introduces me as his lover.”
The two lived together in a Washington home until they broke up in 1998, a few months after Moses ended his seven-year tenure at Fannie Mae, where he was the assistant director of product initiatives. According to National Mortgage News, Moses “helped develop many of Fannie Mae’s affordable housing and home improvement lending programs.”
Critics say such programs led to the mortgage meltdown that prompted last month’s government takeover of Fannie Mae and its financial cousin, Freddie Mac. The giant firms are blamed for spreading bad mortgages throughout the private financial sector.
Although Frank now blames Republicans for the failure of Fannie and Freddie, he spent years blocking GOP lawmakers from imposing tougher regulations on the mortgage giants. In 1991, the year Moses was hired by Fannie, the Boston Globe reported that Frank pushed the agency to loosen regulations on mortgages for two- and three-family homes, even though they were defaulting at twice and five times the rate of single homes, respectively.
Three years later, President Clinton’s Department of Housing and Urban Development tried to impose a new regulation on Fannie, but was thwarted by Frank. Clinton now blames such Democrats for planting the seeds of today’s economic crisis.
“I think the responsibility that the Democrats have may rest more in resisting any efforts by Republicans in the Congress or by me when I was president, to put some standards and tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” Clinton said recently.
Ed:
For that reason, regardless of Moses’ actual efforts in creating the bad paper, the relationship provided a serious conflict of interest for Frank. Frank was supposed to oversee the actions of Fannie Mae as a government-sponsored entity. If he had a partner, spouse, or family member in position to be affected by Frank’s decisions, then Frank should have recused himself from that committee. His failure to do so represents a breach of public trust regardless of Fannie Mae’s failure.
Awesome: New GOP ad lowers the boom on Dems over subprime disaster
Refer to
FLASHBACK to September 30, 1999: Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending
Rep. Barney Frank, Minority Wit
Media Mum on Barney Frank’s Fannie Mae Love Connection
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Others Blogging:
- Democrats Refused to Reform Fannie/Freddie (Video) « The Political Page
- JammieWearingFool
- Awesome: New GOP ad lowers the boom on Dems over subprime disaster : USA TERM LIMITS
- Media bias abound; Ignoring real stories to push false ones « Northern Thoughts And Reflections
- GOP Ad FINALLY Puts The Screws to The Dems on Fannie and Freddie | The Patriot Room
- On the Right
- Barney Frank & Christopher Dodd “Men With Sphincters Of Steel” | BigMouthFrog
- Public Secrets
- The DC Nuke & the Saving Monks | The Anchoress
- Did Frank have a conflict of interest at Fannie Mae? : USA TERM LIMITS
- Economic Bailout Plan: Plans within Plans: Read it at Lorien1973.Com
- skewred.com » Frank’s partisan reports
“ALERT:Barney Frank’s Fannie Buddy Was An Executive at Fannie Mae”
I love that – ‘Fannie Buddy.’ It’s a riot.
I guess it’s not surpising but it certainly is troubling that the democrats are refusing to acknowledge their culpability in this mess. To blame it on the Republicans is to play politics with americans money. They should be ashamed of themselves.
Yes, and this is exactly why the Democrite Leadership is the lowest, most vile form of slime at the bottom of the political pond. They are vermin of the most disgraceful and degenerate type.
There are only four reasons to support them:
1. Utter ignorance: you cannot articulate why you suppoprt them but it feels good
2. You are a partisan hack Kool Aid drinker
3. You are a benificiary of their corruption
4. Mental illness
Did you see that disgraceful degenerate Frank on O’Reilly? He looked like a cartoon caricature,like some demented puppet.
He should be immediately arrested, removed from office, then put on trial for dereliction of duty and Constitutional crimes.
That’s one thing we need to do: put teeth in the Constitution. You violate your worn oath to defend and protect, you pay dearly. Time for these Democrite and other Constitutional criminals to be held fully accountable.
Good commercial, and oh so true. This should be placed squarely on the backs of the Democrites. Every person over the age of 15 in America should know who is primarily responsible for this debacle. The failure and mismanagement of the Democrite Leadership is so monumental it should be studied in schools across the Country. Their culture of corruption is staggering, and their mismanagement makes any mistake Bush has done look tame.
The Democrites cannot be trusted to hold any major positions of power, imo. They are either corrupt or incompetent, or in the case of Nancy Bitchlosi, seriously mentally ill.
Todays Democrite Party is a domestic enemy; a boll weevil, a clear and present danger.
So how does one go about indicting 235 democratic politicians? Okay, the guy from Alabama gets a pass. He at least admitted he was wrong. How is the american public going to get the message across to these bozo’s that enough is enough.
Corruption in the democrite party is causing serious damage to our nation. I would be willing to sign a petition, write letters, or anything that would help get these idiots out of there.
How is the american public going to get the message across to these bozo’s that enough is enough.
Ropes, torches and pitchforks come to mind. Though less efficient than rocket propelled grenades or automatic weapons fire like they use in a number of third world countries, the symbolism would make a statement that the charred body of another corrupt politician just wouldn’t quite convey. BTW exactly where can one order a few thousand Guy Fawkes masks with matching capes anyway?
Pitch forks at dawn I say.
Barney Frank is a disgrace to America on several fronts. O’Reilly owned him when Frank was on his show the other night. Barney’s lover must have cut off Barney’s male parts when they were in bed together because he sure doesn’t have any left to defend his unconscionable actions over the direction of bad economic policy that all of us will have to pay for. He should be drug out into the street and horsewhipped, then arrested for treason, theft and dereliction of duty, then shot at a firing squad.
Let me be the first to tell all you neocon/conservatives the election is over. You lost. Sorry. You can makeup liberal democratic boogie men all you want with your propaganda. Embrace the suck. Can you say losing the W.H. 30 seats in the Congress and 5 Senators? Turn out the lights and go home. Don’t kill the messenger. Have a nice day.
Mike…um…BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! 8-| :-\”