Barney Frank will not run for reelection
Barney Frank
Everyone who follows politics has heard by now that Barney Frank has announced he will not seek reelection in 2012, but I would be remiss if I didn’t at least say a few words on this subject for there is probably nobody in the House that I would be happier to see leave office.
Barney Frank is one of the people who is most responsible for the housing market crash and the failures of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; when President Bush tried to warn the Congress that there was a looming crisis it was none other than Barney Frank who stepped in and accused President Bush of fear mongering on the issue, stating that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were not in crisis.
History has shown us that these two entities were indeed in crisis and Barney Frank was partly responsible for the failure of the government to make the reforms needed. Yet today President Bush is blamed for doing nothing while Barney Frank escapes all blame. (And we mustn’t forget that Barney Frank also used his position to get his boyfriend a job at Fannie Mae, is that why he was against reforming the institution?)
So today as barney Frank prepares to step down at the end of this term I only regret the fact that he didn’t do it years earlier, if he had perhaps the United States wouldn’t still be in the recession that he helped create.
I only wish we could trust Massachusetts to hire a replacement who would be of a different mindset, but Massachusetts appears ready to replace Scott Brown with Elizabeth Warren, the women who is taking credit for creating the intellectual foundation of the Occupy movement, so all bets are off.
America's Watchtower 
Sorry for the long reply — but this part of a blog I’ve been ghost writing for my boss — After 10 years in the mortgage business, I can tell you a few things or two . . .
Congressman Barney Frank of Massachusetts was a member, and later the chairman, of the House Financial Services Committee, the committee that governs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It is one of the most powerful committees in Washington, charged with overseeing “all components of the nation’s housing and financial services sectors.” The committee is also the watchdog of HUD, the Federal Reserve, and the FDIC.
It is public record that Frank was a die-hard advocate and protector of Fannie Mae, and anyone in his favor, indeed, anyone Fannie considered a “friend,” were aptly rewarded. Fannie channeled portions of its profits to members of Congress, contributing to campaigns and handing out patronage positions to relatives and former staff members.
For instance, in 1992, Frank got his live-in homosexual lover, Herb Moses, the job as Fannie Mae’s assistant director of product initiatives. A person’s sexual orientation is their own business, but c’mon, Frank was writing housing and banking laws while his live-in boyfriend is a top executive at a company that stood to directly gain from those laws; a blatant and dangerous conflict of interest. And throughout that time Frank zealously defended Fannie by thwarting any proposed Congressional legislation on it.
In a particular House Financial Services Committee hearing, Robert Reischauer, the renowned economist, expert on the national budget, and at the time the director of the Congressional Budget Office, expressed concerns that if Fannie tumbled, taxpayers could be left holding the bag. Specifically he said, “Making sure that Fannie and Freddie are entities that are independent, that have some visibility, that have safety and soundness as their prime objective, I think, is a way to ensure that the taxpayer is protected at those times when the klieg lights go off.”
That so pissed off Frank he subjected Reishauer to such a ferocious cross-examination that Henry Gonzalez, the subcommittee chairman, openly called Frank on the carpet for it.
But, see, Fannie Mae had donated $42,350 to Frank’s campaigns, and herb Moses received huge bonuses at Fannie when living with Frank. Fannie contributed $75,000 to the “Committee to End Elder Homelessness,” a Boston, Massachusetts nonprofit group co-founded by Barney Frank’s mother, Elsie Frank. Fannie also twice awarded Elsie’s group the “Fannie Mae Maxwell Award of Excellence.” A newsletter issued by the Committee to End Elder Homelessness thanked Barney for “working behind the scenes to open many doors for us to help achieve our goal.”
In another, now infamous hearing of the House Financial Services Committee in 2003, the Bush administration tried to bring Fannie and Freddie under stricter regulatory control after a study by outside investigators reported that they were not adequately hedging against risks, and claiming Fannie in particular had scandalously misstated its accounts (see Part Two of this series). However, Barney Frank, along with other friends of Fannie on the committee, including Gregory Meeks and Carl Schumer, maintained that Fannie and Freddie were no threat to taxpayers. Frank claimed the threat to Fannie’s safety and soundness was exaggerated, and that he saw no possibility of serious financial losses to the Treasury. He went on to say, “I think [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] are fundamentally sound financially.” And ended with, “. . . we do not have a crisis at Freddie Mac, and particularly at Fannie Mae under the outstanding leadership of Mr Franklin Raines.”
All that said at the time when Fannie was doctoring its books to show $10 billion in bogus profits so its executives could get multi-million dollar bonuses.
Good f*ing riddance!
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No apolgy needed, good stuff there! There is no doubt that Frank had a conflict of interest that clouded his vision and caused him to defend the institution that is mostly responsible for the housing crisis which led to this recession.
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Are we allowed to give three cheers? Thank God he has finally decided to call it quits.
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Hip hip hurrah! I only wish he had done this sooner.
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Yeah well don’t get all warm in your pants Maxine Waters takes his place!
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I heard that this evening on the Neal Boortz show. That’s not a real pleasant thought.
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No it isn’t, but would we really expect any less from the party that promised to “drain the swamp?”
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She won’t be any better, but I still need a day to relish this moment! 🙂
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At a time like this, any increase in power to Waters would be quite destructive to the Dems.
As far as Frank and Dodd — they are two politicains history will no look kindly on.
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It could be that this move comes back to haunt the Dems, at least I hope so!
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Don’t forget Steve, Barney Frank’s gift for totally screwing up the housing market and the economy is going to be the gift that keeps on giving because of the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill. That little gift is going to screw us for years to come my friend. Bub Bye Barney.
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Yes it is, I didn’t even touch on that piece of legislation but we will be feeling the effects of Barney’s reign for quite some time.
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good riddance to one of the most corrupt members of the US congress
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Amen brother!
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Backdoor Barney who had been back-dooring us for too many years is going away – Let’s hope the door hits him on his ass on his way out …. However, if you thought Barney was corrupt he has nothing on Maxine Waters….WM
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I know! It is ironic that he would be replaced with someone as corrupt as Waters and her husband, we might actually have been better of with Frank staying on this committee.
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